The Next Chapter Written By: Niki Ishikawa

On Wednesday I finished my last day of work as a fine dining server. When I started working at the restaurant ten years and nine days before, I never anticipated being there for the long haul. 

Originally, I found a part time job serving, so I could go back to school and still afford the house I bought with my dad. I had recently quit my job as a Clinical Research Assistant in Aerospace Physiology. After two years of prepping subjects for an altitude chamber and recording the data, I realized I wasn’t much for the process of scientific discovery. I lacked the passion for it and knew that if I was going to be happy and healthy it was imperative that I follow my dreams. 

So at 27 years old I decided I needed a do over. I went back to school, this time for a BA in English. While I wanted to go the creative writing route, it made more sense for me financially to do English Literature. I could complete a second bachelors in two years time and still take some of the creative writing classes that I was curious about, which was a lot more appealing than taking three years to earn a BA in Creative Writing.

In Spring of 2010, I finished my BA in English Literature along with my Professional Writing Certificate, which is like a minor in professional writing. Since I was an avid reader and loved writing, I knew that I wanted to become a writer. My plan was to stay at the restaurant while I wrote a book and then go back to school for an MFA in creative writing. That’s when life happened…

Just before I started my second year in the English Lit program my husband and I got engaged, then we were married two months after I finished the program. I attempted to write my book the following fall and winter, but was struggling to find my focus and gain momentum. By my husband’s 30^th birthday that February, we decided to try and start our family, thinking that it would take some time to get pregnant. Surprise! Exactly nine months and two days later we had our first son. Who knew we were so fertile?

While I was pregnant with our first born, we decided that it would be best for us and our family, to not put our children into any childcare programs, if possible. We wanted to be the ones to raise our babies not a daycare or babysitter. By me staying at my job as a server, we would be able to do that. I would be home with the children during the day and my husband would be home with them at night. Foolish me, I also believed I would have the time and energy to write my book too. And when was I going to sleep and take care of me? But I digress…

So that is how I ended up serving at a fine dining restaurant for the last ten years. And you know, I would still be there, if I was not approached by my mother-in-law, who one day asked me, “have you ever thought about teaching?”

Teaching? Me? Well, I did, once a long time ago, when I was finishing up my second degree. I admired my professors and what they got to do all day. My literature professors read great books for a living and spent their days discussing them and writing about them. I could totally see myself doing that one day. I briefly thought about teaching at the college level, but knew that would require me to further my education, which was in my plans, eventually. I just hadn’t gotten there yet.

But this question was, “have ever thought about teaching high school english?” What? Me? No. Maybe? I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I’ve been living with and married to a high school teacher and former high school football coach for years now, but I never really considered following the same career path as him. 

Side note… the craziest thing about the question of me teaching was my horoscope for the week. My horoscope predicted that I would have a job opportunity that week and warned me to take some time to really think about it and not respond immediately. So I listened to my horoscope and that’s exactly what I did. I took some time to consider myself teaching. 

My first concern was that I don’t like speaking in front of people, but wait a minute, I’ve been speaking in front of people for the last ten years, explaining the menu, selling specials and offering suggestions on food and beverage selections. Every night, the money I made, was dependent on my ability to speak confidently in front of prominent business men. With that in mind, there is absolutely no reason why I couldn’t speak in front of a classroom of teenagers just as effectively. 

My next concern was that my little one has another year of preschool ahead of him. What would he do for the rest of the day after preschool? And who would meet my soon to be first grader’s school bus after school? But then again, we had already decided we were going to send the little one to school five days a week instead of three. He would probably enjoy staying the full day and spending the afternoon playing with friends. And my mother-in-law had already offered to meet the school bus everyday when she first brought up the idea of me teaching, so no worries there.

My last concern was that I would have to work more and make less money than I was currently bringing home. I was afraid it wouldn’t be worth the change. So I got out my calculator and looked at the previous academic calendar and calculated about how many days I would be working and the minimum base pay that I would be making. I took into consideration, having to pay for the extended child care program at the preschool. But also got to calculate added income that we were currently paying for my health insurance and would no longer have to pay, because I would have my own benefits. 

Once everything was calculated, I realized we would actually have an increase in our combined income, even if I was paid the bare minimum starting teaching wage. Plus an added bonus I would earn state retirement, not to mention have all weekends and holidays off, along with summer, fall, winter and spring breaks. I would also get to be home to eat dinner with my family every night and go to bed at a decent time every night. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so scattered brained and sleep deprived? This teaching gig was starting to look very appealing to me.  

Now, could I do it? Turns out I am highly qualified to teach English, because I have a degree in the subject matter. I knew my degree would come in handy one day, just didn’t know how long it would take me to figure that out. Could I actually teach teenagers and have them learn something from me? I know I can write, think critically and my love of reading is a given. But do I have the ability to teach what I know? Well, we will soon find out. After giving it much thought and consideration, I realized that this is one of those opportunities I cannot possibly pass up. Yes, ultimately, I still want to be a writer, I want to finish writing my book, but who says I can’t teach and write? It might do me some good to be completely immersed in reading, writing and teaching the subject too. 

So as I said my final goodbyes at my job of ten years (the longest job I’ve ever had), I thought maybe I was supposed to feel sad. After all, I was leaving good people, great friends that I’ve been working next to for the last decade of my life. But it turns out, I didn’t feel sad at all. It almost made me feel bad that I didn’t feel sad. 

Instead of thinking about what I was leaving, I was focused on the excitement and anticipation of starting something new. I am looking forward to challenging myself and immersing myself into the subject I love, while hopefully teaching young people what I know and am passionate about. It has also been so encouraging that all of my family and friends think that I will be a great teacher. They believe in me so much, it’s making it hard for me not to believe in myself too. So here’s to the next chapter of my life. Wish me luck.