resigned.

If you are here then you may have heard my news about my job. I have officially resigned my position at the school. 2024/2025 is my last year at SWE. If you’d like to know more about my decision and future plans. Keep reading. 

First. Let me start off by saying that I love my job!! I totally do!! Even though there are days that are really hard mentally and the pay is an absolute joke, I do love showing up to my job every single day. I love that I work with people who have become family and the students have become like my own kids. So, deciding to leave my job that I love was not easy to do. 

How I Got Here?

I moved to SW in 2000, before the school was built. This school has been a part of my life since 2008, when my eldest baby started Kindergarten here. I have been an SWE parent and an employee. When I started working at SWE officially in 2016 I was newly divorced and my youngest was in his last year here. Yep. My high school sweetheart had moved out and moved on and I needed to find a job stat. I was fortunate to receive a call from the assistant principal at the time telling me about a position that had come open. I applied and got the RtI reading para position and after a few years of doing that I later moved up to the front desk when Stephanie became our registrar. Working after being a stay home mom and with only a high school diploma brought a lot of feelings. I had a lot of guilt! Thankfully, I had already formed relationships with a lot of the staff because my boys had been in school there so that made the transition to full time working mom easier. It already felt like home. I needed that. My boys did, too. After I started working and was settling into being a single mom my Dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May of 2017. It was a fast and furious illness. He died September 25, 2017. Cancer sucks!! All the time. Ugh.  Anyway, the beginning of my employment at SWE I was a mess. I mean I’m still a mess! Lol. But, back then I felt very lost, lonely, and confused at the same time. I was very sad, too. As the days and then years went by, I began to feel like I had a bigger reason and purpose in my life. Today as I write this I can see and confidently say that SWE has been a place of big growth and healing for me!!! It helped me get stronger! It helped me find myself again. It gave me a new foundation. I am not the same person I was when I started. I am forever grateful to this place and to every single person that I met and know through it. Thank you all for holding the boys and me up all this time!!

Where I Am Going?

Next is to put my house on the market. This is a whole other feat in and of itself because I have lived in my house over 24 years. It’s the home my babies were born to and grew up in. Eek! All the feels all the time. Since, I’m still happily single and the boys having graduated and in college in Austin, this house is way too big for just me. The maintenance and upkeep plus having maxed out alimony and child support to supplement my work “pay” means I can’t afford it and I have to sell and downsize! Yes, that means moving. Where to? I mean it’s not been 100% decided but, my heart feels like Austin might be it. The loves of my life live there for the majority of the year after all! Being in the same town as them would be so nice. If school starts back up before the house sells, I would like to sub/guest teach until it does. Once and hopefully when it does sell, I’ll go from there. I have been looking at places to live and work. The University of Texas has lots of opportunities for employment (heart eyes!) We’ll see what happens. 

*Update. As a lot of you know I am back in college working on my Bachelor’s degree and because I do it online that means I can continue to do that wherever I go! You may have seen me staying at work late recently. It’s because I stay to do homework. I have 2 years left. I am still leaning towards elementary education/guidance counseling but, who knows what I will do once I graduate. What I do know is that I will have a college degree one day and I will make more than para pay! Hallelujah thank you, Jesus!! Another good thing that’s come from all of this was going back to school. It’s never too late y’all!! 

Who Will Replace Me?

I don’t know. Now that I have officially resigned with the district the position can be posted. I don't know when that will be. That's not up to me. What I can do and what I am doing...I am already praying for a person that will come in and make things feel seamless. Someone with a fresh pair of eyes and ears and ideas. Someone who makes everyone feel inspired to do and try things in a new way! Someone who is kind and open to learning from the teachers and staff about the amazing loving climate that is SWE and how to maintain that feeling in the front. I used to hate change. Change is scary! Yes! It can be good, too though. It’s gonna be ok. Trust. 

What Now?

Until school ends, I just want to enjoy every single minute at the job I absolutely adore!! I want to keep having fun in the front. I still just want to do the very best I can every day! I don’t want to think about the last day yet. 

If you are still here, thanks for reading this. If we work together thanks for being part of my journey. If we are friends or family thanks for always standing by my side. My story is not over. This chapter is ending is all. It’s time to turn the page and see what happens next. 

-B