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Image: Armistice by Zach McLaughlin (pastel)
I started teaching in 2010, but before that I had several different jobs. In fact, many teachers, especially language teachers, start in other professions and end up in teaching because they’re looking for more fulfilling work. I’ve had coworkers who came from the hard sciences, from IT, from insurance, and even from the Red Cross. My experience is quite different, though.
My earliest jobs, starting in high school, were manual labour jobs. I worked in landscaping, construction, and agriculture. I worked on my parents’ farm and other farms in the neighbourhood, raising sheep, baling hay, and collecting sap to make maple syrup, but my favourite job at that time was driving a tractor at a strawberry farm. I also worked at a garden center, so a lot of my early work was with plants! Maybe that’s why I still like plants and fill my apartment with them today.
When I went off to college, I studied as a technical illustrator. During this time, I worked in the maintenance and engineering department of the college I attended, and I also worked as an entomological illustrator at the University of Toronto (drawing bugs). I also took a year off to work as an archaeologist before returning to complete my degree. In the end, I gave up my career as an artist due to a wrist injury, and that’s when I finally moved into a teaching career.
It was very nice to have so many different experiences when I was younger, but for the past 12 years I’ve been quite happy with teaching. If you get a chance, try asking your teachers what they did before they started teaching. You may get some interesting answers!
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