Good morning and happy first week of classes! It has been a hectic start to the semester Everything is online this week to prevent any virus from spreading on campus which means I have barely left my dorm building since moving back. I don’t mind though- at least not a lot- because I have plenty of work to keep me busy.
I am taking four classes this semester: my first-year writing course called What’s In A Name, the next level of my Spanish class, an Introduction to American Studies as my history distribution requirement, and Educating Young Children with Special Needs just for fun. Zoom and wifi issues have kept me from really getting a feel for how class time will go, but I can already tell homework will be intense. I have done hundreds of pages of reading this week and made piles of flashcards, but I already feel like I am behind. I’m also balancing my work at the Child Study Center and preparing for Mock Trial regionals at the end of February. I keep telling myself it’s an adjustment period and I will get better at managing the workload with time, but it’s hard to imagine a world when reading three textbook chapters in one day will seem normal.
In lighter news, I switched classrooms at the Child Study Center this week. Last semester, I worked in the oldest classroom but decided to switch to the youngest classroom. I will need a lot more hours and experience with the toddler age group if I want to get certified so I figured there is no better time to start than the present. I miss the kids in the oldest classroom, of course, but am having so much fun with the babies. It’s chaotic in the best way possible: they have so many needs, they are learning so fast, and are constantly zipping around the room from one center to another.
Working at the CSC and my part-time job at a preschool over break have given me the chance to think much more seriously about the future. I am sure it comes as no surprise that most Wellesley students are not considering early childhood education as a career. I have been having a hard time finding where I fit within the education department and the school as a whole: there is no active community of young preschool teachers to lean on and work with on campus, at least that I know of, and even fewer resources available to help me figure out how to get certified in all the different specialties I need. I decided to call on my friendly neighborhood career advisor to talk about where I should go next and am feeling marginally better after our meeting. I have done so much research and know exactly what I need to do, I just need somebody to tell me how to get there and that I am doing the right things. We decided the best next step is to look at The Hive, an online platform that connects Wellesley students with alumni interested in mentorship. The goal is to find somebody who has been where I am right now and can tell me how they did it.
There’s a lot to figure out in the next few years, and I’m still not certain exactly what the path will look like. I imagine most first years are feeling this too. The first semester was all about figuring out how to live my life at college. This semester and everyone after will be about how to live my life for the rest of my life.