Going into my fourth year, I always knew what I wanted to do: apply to teacher’s college for I/S (or Intermediate/Senior level) to teach English and History (the two degrees that I was currently earning). But I did have somewhat a backup plan, including a possible Master’s program or Librarian Studies, but I had little to no information about them.
So, I went forth and applied for a Bachelors’s in Education! I had high hopes because I’d followed all the steps, asked many questions to those in the program, as well as professors and academic advisors. Everyone agreed that I would have no problem getting in, with my grades and schooling, they were areas that needed teachers and were not common. Heck, I thought that I had it all and there was no way that I would be turned down.
February rolls around, the middle of the Winter Semester (just about the worst time to get any news, especially as it was my last semester) and I pull up my application. I believe that was the day I just broke down. I didn’t get in. My goal from a young age had been crushed and I had no idea what to do next.
I knew that I wanted to continue my schooling. I have always wanted to do more with my Bachelor’s degree, but upon receiving this news, I fell into a dark hole, not wanting to do very much. Bringing forward my supportive family, who encouraged me to look into other programs as a backup in case applying for P/J (or Primary/Junior) didn’t work out. Bring forth me scrambling trying to set up meetings with both History and English professors, trying to gauge what I could do with Masters in both of those subject areas. I spoke with my GA’s in these programs, asking why they picked these programs and what did they plan to do once they completed it. Along with this, I inquired about the workload, how difficult they found it, and how different research aspects varied from both programs. As I started to learn all of this, I started to feel more confident that I could take this route in schooling and come back to a Bachelor’s of Education at a later point.
Now, you may be wondering what I ultimately ended up doing. Well, I did apply for P/J and got in! While this was not my ideal teaching level, I plan to get additional qualifications in order to teach all grades JK-12. Once finished, I want to go back to earn a Master’s in History. After learning about the program, I found that I would love to research more about the areas of study that I enjoyed learning about in my undergrad and would love to pursue that.
My overall message is, have a backup plan. Life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to, but sometimes it is for the better. You never know what you find and may discover that you want to do something different than you once already thought.