I have never really understood why I chose to become an English teacher. It�s a mystery to me. It really is. I had done some teaching in Ireland and enjoyed it but it was quite clear that it was not something at which you could make a fortune. Now being 28, I had felt that the mythical million I had promised myself when I was 18 should be appearing, well, about now. It hasn�t and it don�t expect it to anytime soon.
So why bother? And why am I bothering to even write this stupid piece of text. I don�t know the reason for that either. However, my life has become amazingly befuddled in recent months and writing about it seems to help sometimes. Besides, some rather amusing things have happened since I got here. Some to me and some to others. I�ll be relating these tales over the course of the next few weeks. The names may or may not be changed to protect the guilty.
I arrived here (Valencia, Spain) in September of 2003. I had just spent the last 12 months working for an e-learning company in Brighton England and I can safely say that I had never been unhappier than I had been in my entire life before leaving there. I hated my job. Hated it, hated it and hated it some more. It was a vicious, bitter hell-hole run by middle management David Brent types who sadly believed that they were actually Pierce Brosnan.
The decision to leave was actually made much earlier: on New Years Day 2003. I had returned from visiting home for Xmas and found myself in Brighton, in the pissing rain, howling wind, in a city where I had no friends, a job I hated, a flat I couldn�t afford and a girlfriend who was running out of patience with me. I can�t blame her: I was a wreck. Directionless, maudlin, self-pitying and bubbling over with self-hatred. I decided that it was time for a change. I always thought that such powerful, life-altering moments were supposed to occur with bolts of lightning, music and earth-shattering realisations. Not so in this case anyway. It was a cold moment, in the middle of King�s street. I just decided that I had had enough. I wanted some �happy� in my life. I decided to move to another country. Sun, fresh air. That sort of thing.
In truth, I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
I looked at a book on English teaching, looked at where I could study to be a teacher and found Valencia, Spain�
To be honest, most life changing decisions occur at times of desperation......how else would we get the motivation to change our lives otherwise??
Hang in there bb.