Welcome to an occasional series I'm undertaking, "Strictly Personal", which is also somewhat a token of homage to the late
Sydney J. Harris, who I've referenced tonight
here.
The point here is this: If you read this, and engage, we are conversing. And I welcome that. "4" me if you like, I won't complain, although replies are more valued here.
(Beyond this point there be not dragons, just more words!)
Slightly more than a year ago, I took a TEFL certification. (Teaching English as a Foreign Language, if you've not heard of it.) Then, literally the day following the final class, I was back at work shooting a presser, then some baseball stuff, then more, and so on. Suffice it to say, I wound up remaining a working cameraman, staying put right here in the US. As things (SARS, bird flu, a rise in anti-Americanism overseas - as even described here, and not least, my own inertia) developed, I thought I'd done the right thing, yet remained unsure.
With time, the uncertainty faded. I have a life here, after all. Family, people I'm close to, things I like to do, places I like to go, a home.
Last night, over a really good Sichuan style dinner, the door creaked open again. I received a direct question about my English teaching certification from a friend who is a government official there, concerned with foreign trade relations. Apparently, they are in need of people to teach adults conversational and idiomatic English, primarily those in the business and foreign relations lines cited above.
I am thus now presented with an opportunity, clothed in a small dilemma. I've been actively recruited to teach, while at the same time I'm in the process of starting a small business services company with a friend/colleague here. We have some good potential, and I'd hate to "cut and run" from that if it meant leaving a friend in the lurch.
And I'm also now over 50, and while this old dog is both still capable of learning a few new tricks and continuing to perform most of the old ones, the question here becomes whether this is a last chance to take on something large and interesting, or a wild goose chase amounting to near exile.
To refer back to Mr. Harris:
Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, "Why not?" and the other, "Why bother?"
Which brings us back to this point. This is a life change to be both anticipated and feared. Change I don't mind, although the magnitude of this one is somewhat daunting. And I suspect that there are opportunities well beyond the chance to teach. And not only in the professional arena.
One more Harris quote:
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
I think I will be exploring this opportunity, at least to the extent of further inquiry. Whether I begin packing and sell a lot of belongings is yet another question, and that answer is yet unknown.
I will happily read comments on any of this. If you've taught overseas, your words will be of particular value.
Thanks for reading...