How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hill

It's been a very...ummm interesting week. It started out as an exciting week. I had a teaching position that I was preparing to interview for, and second teaching position that was in the works. I had an inside track and was just waiting for a call to set up an interview. It was looking to be an exciting week.

Monday morning I went in for my first interview. I was very nervous and excited. The interview was with the principal and 6 other teachers from the school. That's a little intimidating. They took turns firing questions at me about classroom management, curriculum, teaching philosophies, and the old standard fluff like: "What do you enjoy most about teaching?". I answered each in turn to the best of my ability. I saw a lot of nodding heads to my answers and approving smiles. All seemed to go great.

I called my friend at the other school to touch base. She said she would let me know when they were setting up interviews. I checked in with an adviser at NKU who has close ties with the school district with which I had just interviewed. I knew she would not hesitate to give me a good reference. I had a good feeling about this one.
Wednesday afternoon I still had not heard about the other possible position which leads me to doubt that I will. School starts in a little over 3 weeks. Then I got a call from my wife. We got a letter from the other school, crap a letter. That can't be good news. It wasn't good news. Dear Mr. Iker, We were pleased to meet you...blah, blah, blah...lots of applicants....blah, blah, blah...good luck loser...blah, blah. Okay I'm paraphrasing the last part.

The rest of the afternoon was not fun. I alternately felt okay with not getting the job and very disappointed in myself for blowing the interview and not getting the job. I really don't think I blew the interview, but you know how that goes.

I had scheduled a hill training run after work, but really didn't feel like doing it. I wasn't really in the state of mind to go run up a hill 5 times over. I went anyway. Sometime during the second time I was working my way up the .4 mile hill I realized something. I wasn't thinking about not getting the job anymore. That lead me to start thinking about it, but as I breathed heavily, and felt the burning in my legs I realized that I was good with it. I have a lot of good things going on in my life. I do have a decent job, maybe not my dream job, but a good job none the less. I have the love of my family. I have good friends. I have my health. I have this hill. I love this hill. (My love for the hill was short lived. It was over by the time I started the 3rd time up the hill.)