never too late to try

first day working in a new job

in this week’s newsletter: first day working at a local cafe, first time trying something completely new, and reflections in a season of job searching and (potential) change

dear penpals -

each week i wrestle with figuring out what new update i want to share with you and although this event has happened 6 weeks ago, i still wanted to write a newsletter about this because it makes me really happy. so i hope you don’t mind, despite it being october and as we welcome the colder weather we’re having, we’re going to go back to summer for a little bit to my first day at a new job here in kamikatsu.

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growing up, my first ever job as a high school student was teaching kids how to swim. i worked at this job for quite a number of years before taking on a summer job as a camp counsellor until i graduated high school. once i entered into university, i started working in both elementary and high school classrooms as a teaching assistant until i graduated and accepted my first full-time teaching position at the age of 22. and didn’t stop until 4 months ago.

when i look back at my entire work experience, i realize all i’ve ever really done was teach and/or work with children in some way, shape, or form. and although i would never trade those years and lessons for anything, there’s always been a part of me that has wondered, “what if…”

so when i arrived in kamikatsu and the opportunity came to work part-time at the local cafe, i nervously but happily accepted. suddenly i was thrown into a new job that i’ve never done before, but also found myself really enjoying it.

i made a mini (like very mini) vlog about what my first day was like. but since i was so new and nervous, i didn’t film a whole lot. so it’s more like a peak into the things i did on my first day (more for my memory sake).

click on the image or the link to watch it is here.
please click on ‘CC’ at the bottom right corner for closed captions if needed.

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one of the reasons for coming to japan was to give myself a break after 5 years of teaching and really struggling with heavy feelings of burnout and losing my sense of direction with my career. i came hoping to find the answer of what i should (or shouldn’t) do if/when i choose to return. but lately, the more i spend time not only in this part-time job but also in community with the local people, is the realization that perhaps my time in japan is not to find the answer, but to experience all the answers.

maybe to figure out what i want to do with my career is not to decide how much i do or don’t love teaching, but to see if there are other things in this big and vast world that i do or don’t love instead. and there’s no way for me to find that out without trying things first.

i’m 27 years old and, for the first time, i worked in a non-teaching, non-child related job and walked away with the realization that yes, you truly are never too old and it really is never too late to try something new.

if you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. if you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what i will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
- Oscar Wilde

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