I’ve been a high school teacher for two years now and I love my job–except when I don’t love it. I don’t know if I can do it for the next 28 years to qualify for my state pension, but I’m going to try. I at least want to stick out the next three years and get some of my loans forgiven. But, until May 2022, I need to find an outlet to regain my personality and my sanity.
While I’m not planning to use this blog as a platform to voice my personal frustrations with the state of education in the United States of America, I think it’s important to contextualize myself. Simply put, I need an escape sometimes from my every day life
I’ve been on summer break for nearly four weeks now and this past week I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I’ve been sitting in my pajamas, making lunch and sometimes dinner for my husband when he comes home, hanging out with my dogs, and bingeing the entirety of Outlander in a week. Mostly I’m dreaming of all of the vacations I could take… if only I had the money.
Last summer I used my Proposition 301 payment to pay for a Carnival Cruise for myself and my husband. The cruise left June 1, 2019–roughly a week after the school year ended! We spent the couple of days prior to that at Disneyland, where we were able to score coveted opening day passes to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge!
I’d been eyeing a cruise vacation for a while. I went on one as a kid and had a terrible time–it was a Disney Cruise in case you were wondering! Maybe more on that in another post–but I felt called to try it again.
I mean, what’s not to like about cruising? Someone else cooks and cleans for you while you relax and enjoy drinks in the sun. This relaxation is punctuated ever so often by ports in exotic locales with traditions and foods to explore. It sounds like paradise, and most importantly, it was! I had so many concerns going into this, but it turns out they were for naught. When we got off the ship, I started making plans… except I started to realize that all the things I wanted to do would cost so much more money than I make on my lowly teacher’s salary.
I’ve been in a slump since then. I’ve oscillated between obsessing over how to make enough money to expand our travel horizons and vegetating, mulling over my own despair and self-pity. Through that process I discovered there are these people who just buy products from overseas and sell them on Amazon and make a fortune. I don’t really know why that fascinates and frustrates me as much as it does. I think it has something to do with feeling like I’ve chosen the wrong path. How is this bimbo making $50,000 a month selling sponges on Amazon and I barely make $40,000 a year with bonuses and two degrees? Are they objectively more intelligent than I am? Do they work harder than me?
Anyway, this has led me to a couple of options in the last few weeks. I ended up settling on VIPKid, since it uses skills I already have and I can work from home around my already packed work schedule. If this works out, I’ll update y’all later!
Regardless, my husband and I want to travel more before we have kids of our own. I hope that through VIPKid and starshiptravels we can create a community of people who have similar goals!
My #1 goal over the next five years is to go on a vacation of some sort twice a year: once in the summer and once over winter break. The downside to this is that I’m a teacher and I can pretty much only travel during peak times. This makes getting that relaxation much more expensive. The good news is that I have a very loving and supportive husband who has an excellent PTO package and a really flexible work environment that allows us to go during these peak times!
My #2 goal over the next five years is to go on a small-staycation of some sort one weekend a quarter and explore my local area.
I look forward to sharing our experiences with you!
starshiptravels.com 