Yearly Review

So this week marks the end of my contract with the school as a part time counsellor for this year. I was notified that whether my contract will be renewed next year depends on whether MOE allocates a part time counsellor to the school. If they don't, I stand a chance, but even then the school needs to apply for funds from the "School Cluster Supervisor" to pay me. You see that's the difference, part time school counsellors sent by MOE are under MOE's payroll and relieves the school all the hassle of applying for funds and administering the payment etc. Mysteriously enough, MOE recruits part time counsellors only from ex or retired teachers and trained them in 6 months under a crash program. They don't engage part time school counsellors from the work force.

So it seems an appropriate time for me to do my yearly review again. I review the options that may be opened for me next year:

a) part time school counsellor (got to search for schools with the funds)

b) part time social worker (the administrative details in handling financial cases scares me though I enjoy the counselling part of the job)

c) make a come back in the finance line (haha don't laugh, this ever crossed my mind.I have left the corporate world for more than 2 years now and I have forgotten the pain and only remember the money and the perks. But when my dear husband who seldom expresses his frustrations starts to grind his teeth in his sleep and becomes short tempered at times, I know it is stress from work and I tell myself I can do without).

I ask myself in all honesty what do I enjoy most during this period. Images not rationalisation answered my question. The quick footsteps and the happy face of one of my students that greets me, the cute bespectacled boy who kept nudging nearer and nearer to me at story telling and the tree drawn by one of my students which she said was me. I know my haven has to do with children. Even if I can't get a paid job, there are plenty of places where I can volunteer working with children.

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today"- Stacia Tauscher