One year ago this past weekend, I made the stupidest brave decision of my life (so far). With only four days until the school year began, I packed up my CR-V with most of my clothes, school materials, and necessities, and moved 750 miles away to Florida.
I knew absolutely no one. I had no family, no friends, heck, I didn’t even have a bed the first night I was there. All I had was a job at a school I had toured once just two weeks prior. I had a co-worker who was willing to share a bedroom for a few months. And J and I had a hope that this town would become our home.
I’ll rewind a bit to catch you up. In December of 2016, J and I got engaged and set a wedding date for the following December. Which is all fine and dandy until you realize that’s in the middle of the school year and I am a teacher. Okay, no biggie. I’ll need to move back up to St. Louis (where J was working at the time) over the summer, we went to school there and I had connections for a job and friends in the area I could move in with until we were married.
But then in March, J realized he probably couldn’t work there much longer. The expectations (12 hour days and working on the weekends were the norm) of the job just didn’t match up with who J wanted to be as a husband and, someday, father. So we wouldn’t be moving and making a home in St. Louis….so, where then?
J began to apply to jobs in Texas, California, Alabama, and Florida, to name a few. We had no idea where we were going to end up, so I hesitantly took my contract to return to my current school while we waited to figure out where J might land. My principal was understanding and realized this might mean he would need to find a new math teacher in the middle of the summer or school year.
During my last week of school, J got a call for a job on an Air Force base in Florida. He had a phone interview that turned into a Skype interview that turned into a job offer. At this point it was now early June. I could look for a job, but it’s usually slim-pickin’ at this point. Most schools were finished hiring and there wasn’t many options in the area where he was going to work. I looked at schools that were a bit farther in distance. And lo and behold, 63 miles away there was a Catholic school looking for a middle school Science teacher. I sent my resumee and just a few hours later, got a call to be screened for an interview. The VP and I had a great conversation which turned into an offer for a Skype interview the next day which turned into a job offer.
So with the school year drawing closer and still no official start date for J’s job, I packed up my room at my parent’s house and hit the road. I lived with a co-worker just 10 minutes from school, but 10 hours from anyone I knew.
In mid-September, we finally received news that J would start his job in October. But for ten weeks I lived in a new city with a new job with new people all on my own. Those ten weeks were so very difficult, but a year later, I can see how God has provided for us in the past year.
The Misplaced Texan 