Onward Hoe!

When I was a kid (which some might say I remain to this day), I loved reading the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. You could read the book about 900 times, and it would turn out differently every time...or at least more round-about-ly. Anywho, I'd like to take this concept to a new level by NOT choosing my own adventure; rather, you shall choose it for me by a show of comments. My story begins thusly...

My evening supervisor, Karen, was gone all last week to a TESOL conference in Tampa, FL. She came out to our site last night with some flyers she'd picked up there. She said that someone showed it to her because they were recruiting people for this job in San Antonio. Karen, having just accepted a new position with NC community college system at the state level, was not personally interested. She therefore declined the flyer. On second thought, however, she went back and asked for two.

She brought them to the site. One for me. One for my friend Diana, who teaches at both my evening and morning sites. We're both young, single, adventurous and in debt. The job looks perfect for us.

The Department of Defense has a program in which international military or civilian servicepersons are sent by their governments at the invitation of the US government to Lackland AFB in San Antonio to learn English. Some of these students then move on to other bases where they receive further military training. Others return to their countries to teach English and/or manage ESL programs there. I could be teaching them English or doing teacher training.

The salary, friends, is more than twice what I earned in 2005, and it's possible that I might be sent overseas to teach at some point. I wouldn't be enlisted. I would go as a civilian for the Dept. of Defense. They say you have to sign a mobility agreement (in case they want to send you abroad)...like that's a bad thing. I would be working for the federal government, which could be a pro or a con depending on your current political opinion, but the benefits, to be sure, would be stellar, and any benefits...any at all...would be far more than I currently receive.

The problems with leaving Raleigh are that I have one of the most fabulous roommates in the history of cohabitation, I have a church that I really really love, and both of my sisters may be moving much much closer to me within the next few months (one for sure, the other maybe). If both of them were within even 100 miles of Raleigh, that would be the closest we'd lived to each other since about 1994. Maybe that's a little exaggeration, but it's been a long time. I guess 2001 or '02 is more accurate, but you all get the point.

So. Should I go for it, or should I try to beat the record set in '02-03 and live at the same residence for more than a year? You decide.

Oh, for more information, click.