When fate leads you down a dead end street

This past holiday break an interesting thing happened. Or didn't happen. I don't even know where to begin with this. I vague-booked on Facebook, which I don't do very often because I hate it when others do it. I don't know what to think... except that fate led me down a dead end street.

A New Day on the Horizon

I've always believed that things happen for a reason. Yes, all the crappy things that I had to go through, happened for a reason. At the time, if you told me such, I'd have a few choice words, but it always works out, right?

Let's flip the time-turner back about 10 years... My kiddo starts first grade and it's time for Mom to go back to work, to make use of that very expensive graduate degree. I applied for SO MANY jobs. Every school district within an hour, countless 20 page applications. If you're in the teaching field, you know what I'm talking about. It's not a 'send your resume' type of application... it's a "we want to know every thing about you and what you would do if this happened" type of application. It's all online and the district keeps your application for about a year, let's you know when it expires, and gives you a chance to renew it if you want.

In the time I was raising my baby, President Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act and I was left behind. It turns out that taking 7 years off from teaching is detrimental to getting back into the system. I was a teacher's aide in an ELL classroom, an aide in a special ed classroom, and a long term sub for several special ed teachers, but I never got a "real job" despite the many times I tried. So I quit and started a business, completely unrelated :-)

Life happened. Blah blah blah. Now I'm looking for a part time job while I go to school at night for a SLPA certificate (Speech Language Pathology Assistant) and continue to run the business. 

Back to the present... a week before Christmas, I get an email in my inbox from the Robo system inviting me to apply for a job as a part time special education teacher in a district I'm somewhat familiar with. TEN YEARS after I filled in an application for that district. TEN YEARS. Did I mention nobody keeps applications longer than one or two years max?

I am thinking Holy Moly. Where did THAT come from? It was surely meant to be! 

I went back into the system and spent about 4 hours revising the application to reflect current times, updating creating a new resume, researching the position and the district, etc. Hit SEND. The next day I get a phone call from the principal, inviting me to a phone interview. He said it really looked like I would be a good fit based on my past job experiences.

I was really excited. It was meant to be! Why else would this show up after TEN YEARS out of the system?

We had the phone interview and it went really well. The principal was really easy to talk to and I didn't say anything extra stupid. There was only one incidence where I drew a blank after being put on the spot with a "make up a goal for a student who has this problem" type of question. But he was cool about it. The job was supposed to start right after holiday break and go the rest of the school year. If it went well, a full time hire next year. It was part time, about 8-1:30, which would be ideal because I would still have time to run the business and work on school work. IDEAL, I tell you. A REAL job... as a special education teacher!

At the end of the phone interview he said he'd contact me the next day if I was chosen for an in-person interview with the team. Yeah! I totally got this!

I got the phone call.

"Sorry. We're going in another direction with this. Thanks for your time."

Back Where We Started. 

Crash and Burn. The worst part is... I really believed that this was possible. I wanted it. I visualized it. I imagined what it would be like. Why else would this totally random email show up in my inbox TEN YEARS later, offering such an opportunity?

Maybe the Universe is just F*cking with me again.

This is my brain trying to figure it out.

Scrambled, Poached or Broken? 

My only choice is to believe that it happened for a reason and some day I might know that reason.

Or maybe everything is just Random and nothing really matters.