Whimsical September

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Me? A public speaker?

Most of you know that I did not renew my contract for another year of teaching at St. John’s because I want to go ahead and make Clarksville my permanent home. I cried my little eyes out when I broke the news to the administration (I’m so professional…) and my fellow middle school teachers, but I really had a weirdly strong peace about the situation that I’d find another job or something to do to pass the time until Jamie gets home in December or February. I was really taking a big leap of faith leaving my job because it’s an AMAZING place to work, and it’s crucial that I find something to keep me busy during the fall semester.

Well, surprise! God answers prayers.
On June 12th, I am flying out to Littleton, CO (perk – I’ll get to visit Amy!) to train as a Presenter for Rachel’s Challenge, an organization that travels around the country (and sometimes the WORLD!) speaking to students about Rachel Scott, the first student shot and killed at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999. The one-hour presentation focuses on targeted acts of kindness and follows up with a program that implents the lesson learned into a school organization. Rachel’s story is INCREDIBLY moving and powerful (beyond words), and I am honored to be selected as a Presenter of this incredible message.
So that’s pretty random, right? Yep. 🙂 I seriously couldn’t be more excited though! Here’s how it all came about –
I’ll do this in a bulleted list (easier to follow).
* Visited New Orleans for the National Catholic Educators Association annual convention two weeks ago (8,000 people! So fun.)
* Had to pick two sessions to attend each afternoon and had over 30 to pick from
* Saw that Rachel’s father was speaking and really wanted to listen, but decided to go listen to a speaker talk about teaching Language Arts since that was more applicable to my career
* Walked in to the session, felt sad that I was missing Rachel’s father speak, and WALKED OUT (just for the record, that is SO uncharacteristic of me to flat out LEAVE when someone else is speaking)
* Listened to Rachel’s story for the next hour and honestly felt the need to go speak to this man afterward (about what, I didn’t know!)
* Waited until the other several hundred people left, and then I walked up and struck up conversation with him
* One thing led to another and he’s getting my name and phone number as someone who could potentially work for his company in the future
* I WAS SHAKING WITH EXCITEMENT! I just kept thinking about all the curveballs that have been thrown my way this past year and had a feeling that this would add to the list!
* Received a phone call from the central office in Denver two days later, filled out an application, and memorized a short script
* Participated in a Skype interview yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and received this phone call 30 minutes later: “Well Erica, needless to say, you are hired!”
FABULOUS!
I cannot explain how incredible this opportunity is and what a great time it comes at. It’s just blowing my mind. I will be spending all of September and October traveling all over the country giving several presentations a day. I’m what’s called a “seasonal presenter” since so many schools want you to speak to them during the beginning of the year.
I’m going to try to sub in August, November, and December around Clarksville and then my love comes home, and I will NOT be working the first month that he is home so that we can (finally!) go on our honeymoon and relax together. Jamie is absolutely THRILLED for me, and he helped me realize that this is something I should definitely pursue. I will go back to teaching full time next August.
Praise God for new and unexpected opportunies.
Please check out this preview video for Rachel’s Challenge.
 It’ll give you a much better idea of what I’ll be doing.

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