For the last couple of days, I’ve been in mild panic mode over something most people would consider glorious: I have an interview every day for the next three days.
Now, most people in the California teaching world would be excited to get one interview, let alone three. And don’t get me wrong, I am over the moon that three schools consider me a strong enough candidate to want to meet me in person.
So why am I not JUST excited?
If all goes spectacularly, having three interviews means three potential job offers. However, I can only take one. Which means I have to make a choice.
Having choices is slightly immobilizing. Now granted, I don’t have the actual choice yet between these three schools, but I COULD, potentially. And that makes me nervous because I want to choose the right one.
Many times, we are faced with choices that are not really choices. For example, should I take this job 10 miles south that pays $X, or ten miles north that also pays $X. Either way, it’s pretty clear that either choice is going to have the same outcome.
However, my three jobs prospects are in LA, Irvine, and Encinitas. For those of you not in California, these jobs are essentially perfectly placed along the coast in a 150 mile radius from Los Angelos to San Diego. Which means I have to decide where I want to live. I also have to decide how much money weighs in versus location since all three schools have varying salaries. To top it off, I may not even have to take a new job at all if my RIF notice is recalled, so I’d have to decide between the known and the unknown.
In a word….AHHH!
But before you mark this post off as simply a self-indulgent, woe-is-me, first world problems post, let me get to the meat of what I’ve been thinking.
There is no right choice.
Each time you are faced with a decision, all of the options will lead you in a specific direction. It does not necessarily mean that any of the choices will bring you to a better or worse place, it simply means that the destination will be slightly different.
Of course, there is always the exception, which is why this truth only applies to comparable options; if you are choosing between McDonalds and a corporate company with benefits, that really isn’t a choice.
So, then, what exactly IS a choice?
A choice is a decision between two or more outcomes that are equally valid. This is what makes them so hard. I’ve made decisions to move across the country and/or across state lines more than once in my life, but the option of staying seemed so ludicrous that I didn’t really ‘choose’ to leave; it was simply the way my life went.
You can only make decisions based on the information that you have now. This is where really knowing what you want comes into play. There are many stories of people who settled into the family life at 22, only to regret it in their 30’s and 40’s. There are an equal amount of stories of people who put off relationships to become successful, only to end up jaded and lonely. Of course, if you find the right person, you really can do both.
It all boils down to how you see your life going on a macro scale. If you envision yourself traveling the world, why would you NOT accept a job offer where travel is a major component? If you see yourself raising a family and cannot picture your life without children, why would you take a time-consuming, highly demanding job? If you picture yourself enjoying fresh breezes all winter, why would you agree to take a long-term management position in your company in Iowa?
And honestly, once you figure out what you really want, the choice becomes as simple as the one between McDonalds and Goldman-Sachs. Once you have lasered in on your true vision, you will gravitate towards the options that lead you closer to your end goal.
Our lives are simply a series of different elaborate domino set-ups. One decision leads to the next, to the next, to the next. When you take a step back, you can see the awesome pattern laid out before you, but when you’re in the trenches, straining to push over that first domino, it can feel like the most confusing and random scene ever.
And yet, if you don’t push that first domino, you will get none of the awe-inspiring affects that come with perfectly placed events cascading one after the other. So if you are faced with a true, difficult choice in your life, take a step back. Breathe. Realize that either domino represents an adventure. Take some time to get to the root of what you want your life to look like. And when you figure that out? Simply put your finger out and push.
Hannah Elizabeth 
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