Okay so I know that you come to the site to see what fun stuff Chris has going on and that I still owe all of you (especially Matt) photos of the squirrel fishing and all of that. However that isn't what is on my mind at the moment. What is on my mind is the question of what is success? And secondly should we strive for it?
The reason I have been asking these questions is this week I started work. What I do is call people in the evening hours and try to convice them to fill in a survey for the BC government. It is putting food on the table and is paying the bills and it is even somewhat interesting but it isn't where or how I want to end up. I haven't yet reached the conclusion of what I consider success but I have reached some points that I consider my basic axioms of success and I hope to build from there.
Axiom of Success #1 - Do not make things that are completely outside of your control a condition for your success. (example - Saying that I am successful only if it is sunny outside is going to lead to dissapointment because I cannot control the weather. . . yet.)
Axiom of Success #2 - Success in one area of life does not mean success in all areas of your life. (example - All right so I beat Civ III on deity level, that does not mean anything in any other part of my life.)
Axiom of Success #3 - Success is individualistic, mine looks different than yours. (example - You may say that you need to get a book published to be successful I might say you need to wlak on the moon.)
And that is about as far as I got. Well sort of. I have figured out what basic success would entail for me in the categories of physical health, emotional health, spiritual health, and relationships (family and friend oriented ones) . Those were the easy ones. the question that I am wrestling with is about career success. What do I feel that I need to accomplish in order to consider myself successful in my career. Or can I know that right now? I think of Mr. Holland's Opus where he always considered himself to be teaching temporarily but still giving it his all and at the end realizing that his life's work has been a success.
To help us along the way let's look at what different views of success have been throughout my life.
Kindergarten - Grow up to be a Saskatchewan roughrider.
Grade 3 - Be a civil engineer and design cool structures and bridges and stuff like that. In the mean time teach everyone else around me about this and get them to love and understand it.
Grade 6 - Grow up to be a nuclear engineer (physicist) and design/discover cold fusion. In the mean time teach everyone else around me about this and get them to love and understand it.
Grade 10 - Grow up to be an areonautical engineer and design rockets and satellites. In the mean time teach everyone else around me about this and get them to love and understand it.
Grade 12- Grow up to be a chemical engineer and chemicals that will help the world. In the mean time teach everyone else around me about this and get them to love and understand it.
Year off - Study education and teach others how to love and enjoy science.
1st year University - grow up to teach in a small town school inspiring kids to try this with science and to have fun with the subject.
4th Year University and 1st year teaching - Find a school that I like and redesign their entire science program from scratch focusing on activity based learning with scalable activities that can be approached on multiple levels to target teh high and low end students at teh same time. Also be on top of my evaluation and have a built in self evaluation for my classes so that they improve every year. By my 5th - 10th year teaching be an officially recognized Mastery Level teacher.
Now - ? Now a teaching related job would be awesome. I miss teaching so much. But I no longer know what I would consider success. For instance if I found a career out here as a park naturalist and got to design educational hikes and public education programs I would be using my degree and I would have a good job but would I consider myself successful? I don't know.
So that rambling helped clear the mind abit but i still don't know why God brought me out here and i still don't know what I would consider successful. But as I figure stuff out I will keep everyone posted. Oh and I promise that before Sunday night there will be squirrel fishing photos on this blog.
Chris out.
8 comments:
"Chris out"? Are you Derek?
Okay, so I've been talking about this subject quite a bit with you (um, who else do we talk to?), but I think you make a lot of interesting points here. I think it's really good for us to reflect on and evaluate the assumptions that we make about our lives and our goals.
P.S. I think you are a fantastic teacher, and thank you for leaving a good teaching position to come out to an unknown place to work as a telephone surveyor. You have no idea how thankful I am. And thank you for putting food on our table, while I chase a PhD.
God okayed the move, remember. That means he wants me out here for a reason and that there is a reason for me leaving my teaching position.
Chris, I know it isn't fun to not know what you're supposed to be doing; my job is a good one, but I'm not sure what I'm doing is right for me, at least not for the rest of my life.
I envy you for the direction you did have through your life; other than the kindergarten goal of becoming a Roughrider, every other one listed teaching others about science as part of the goal. This telephone survey thing is just a stepping stone, but I'm sure that sooner or later you're going to end up in a position where you can teach others about science (and life). I know I've learned a lot from you in the time we've known one another.
For example: [reading Chris' old blog] Hmmm...note to self: when your chemical explosion doesn't go off like it's supposed to, do not go put your hand on it. :P
What is success? I would think that success, to me, would be when I find myself doing something I love, and allows me to provide for myself and those I love. This is a much less introspective take on it, likely because I've spent a lot less time thinking about the subject, but that'd be my off-the-cuff answer.
Okay, that's enough rambling on my part. Whose blog is this anyway?
:P
Good luck!
Matt is wise. Like Yoda
Think of it this way, Chris: you could be unmarried and still in school. At least you're getting some...money to put food on the table.
Derek out.
P.S. "Chris out" just doesn't fly. I'm telling you as a friend.
P.P.S. Maryanne, we all know the only person who wants to be me is Karl. Even though he will never admit it.
Yeah Chris out was a one time thing. I'll work on something else for the future.
You are very wise Chris. I am sort of in the same situation as you (a teacher without a placement) but I feel like I'm floundering. It is furstrating to know what you want but not knowing what more you can do to get there.
Hey Reed,
I don't know if you'll reed this(get it "Reed"), but don't get down, you are already successful. You were one of the best teachers I ever had. You made Chem class fun and interesting, you know what conversations I'm talking about. The only thing that wasn't totally fun was that little ball throwing incident, but hey it was all in the name of education. Kidding aside, I did learn quite a bit and that's because of you. I think that we are already successful in the here and now, by the little things we do that we think nobody notices,and we are lookin for ways to be more successful because we aren't sure if we really are successful.(Pretty Deep, EH?)
I'm sure all will work out for you and hey I never did congratulate you...Congratulations!
P.S. I should get your e-mail address cuz there's somthing I wanna send you I think you'll find funny.
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