It's contract season in the world of international schools. This is a time when directors and superintendents start trying to guess who will leave and who will stay. They begin the dance of wooing wanted teachers to stay and dropping subtle hints about the adventures awaiting those they wish would move on. Retaining teachers can be a source of pride for a school in an industry where travel and new experiences are one of the main motivating factors that draw people to this specific field- international education. In some cases, the wooing can be fierce enough to put a peacocks feather strutting dance of allure to shame.
But school leaders are not the only ones racing to find their ground. It is the season when teachers begin to reflect on their personal happiness. They review their job satisfaction, their personal life satisfaction and the goals they've set for each. I find the entire process a bit odd and liberating at the same time. Reflection is good. Taking time to remind yourself of your professional and personal goals is invaluable for achieving success and overall happiness.
What strikes me as strange- or overly privileged- is trying to identify if I am "happy" and then possibly uprooting my entire family to go off in search of it. Happy seems to be an ever changing emotion, one that describes a moment or an event, but not necessarily life. Well, perhaps life in the sense of an overall feeling of happiness or general state of well-being. But that seems to be something one carries with them, not something you're likely to find in the next country adventure.
Of course, environment does play a huge role in our ability to feel free, less stressed and more leisurely. Some locations just don't lend themselves to relaxing. Or require an entirely different kind (and fairly imaginative sort) of entertainment.
The danger in this season lies in beginning to see the grass as greener. I don't really know if I am happy, surely I could be happier? Then again, I'm not necessarily unhappy and things can surely get worse. I've long been cursed and blessed with being able to see two sides to every story. It lends for challenging decision making at best. Contract season always leaves me feeling a bit uneasy.
I end up remembering an email from a friend in Ethiopia who was describing fresh strawberries and organic greens available at the local market. It would be nice to eat strawberries, I think. Do I want to live somewhere where people can eat fresh strawberries? I am tempted.
Is this really how life decisions are made? Bad days come along every so often, no matter what your location. On those kinds of days, heading off in search of fresh berries seems like a perfectly reasonable idea- and satisfying. Because after all, what is life about but enjoying time with the ones you love? Think of all the strawberry oriented things you could do as a family- strawberry picking, Friday night strawberry cheesecake, Saturday bbq's and strawberry shortcake, Sunday morning strawberry pancakes, cool smoothie strawberry drinks and light-hearted conversations every afternoon- the possibilities seem endless. Whether the list has 14, 12 or 9 ideas attached, one thing people seem to agree upon is that strawberries=fun.
Added to the entire difficult decision making process is the fact that we're not actually discussing this year. It's contract season now but the contracts we are discussing are for next year, meaning you have to actually project your professional/personal level of satisfaction over the next 8 months and then hope that same trajectory continues into the following ten months. The timing makes it nearly impossible for me to have coherent thoughts. Try to figure out now where I want to be at this same time next year?
Most people don't have this yearly cycle of reflection, decision-making and temptation. If they aren't happy in their daily lives, they make slow changes to adjust accordingly. If they do decide to make a change, chances are it affects just one area of their life- the job, the neighborhood, the family dynamics.
In contract season, you're looking at the whole shebang- pick the entire family up, move off into a brand new country (new neighborhood, new house, possibly even new language,) start a new school and a new job. Every single aspect of your life gets an overhaul. Which could be an entirely positive thing. You could be looking forward to strawberries for dessert..........
