This is the first Summer since 2019 that I haven't had the Masters hanging over me...and oh how I've enjoyed it!
In my last update back in May I was confidently declaring that I was finished, despite not having received my Oral results yet. Fortunately I did in fact pass my oral and, at the end of May, finally received my transcript of results - official confirmation that I was officially done!
No big celebration or anything, I may have ordered a takeaway that evening but that's the extent of it! I do want to properly celebrate it though, it was a long journey so I owe it to past me if nothing else! Our Graduation in November will probably be when I do that and properly think back over the past 2+ years.
So, what now?!
I really couldn't bring myself to think about anything school-related once I logged off from my oral exam. The two years had caught up with me and I wanted to just switch off from it all! That being said, I did pop in a bit to my placement school to do some subbing in May. I wanted to make the most of having a Summer, and was also conscious that this might be the last year that I have May & June to do as I please! On the flip side though, I knew four months of Summer holidays would require a bit of money...so sub I must!
With that, I also decided not to start my job hunt until later in the Summer. My sister is a Secondary teacher and she had cautioned about how there had been many Summers that she hadn't enjoyed fully because she'd been worrying about jobs too much. Plenty of people in my class secured jobs in June, so I did start to worry a bit, but I stuck to my guns - I just personally wasn't in the headspace for it yet!
So, what have I been getting up to over the Summer? Well, very little teaching related! I went to Italy, got Covid for the first time, visited a dairy farm (twice!), ran a marathon relay, visted Cork City Gaol, hosted my sister's hen party (which in fairness felt a bit like being on placement again...), agreed to sub for a week the Monday after the hen and really regretted it on Sunday night, administered my first Drumcondra tests, was very lazy in Lanzarote, helped with my sister's wedding prep (which again felt like being on placement...), holidayed in West Cork during the heatwave, solved a murder mystery in Adare, cycled, swam and generally made up for what I missed out on during the Masters!
Last week, with September looming, I finally started the job hunt. Currently I've only applied to 3, but I've been invited for an interview to one this Friday! Whatever the outcome, it'll be good to have at least done one so that I've a better idea what they're like. For the rest of this month, I'll be working through my excel of job application deadlines. The golden ticket for me is a fixed-term mainstream position, so I'm being a bit picky for now - might change tact if I don't have anything by September! At least I know there's plenty of subbing work so there'll be something for me somewhere...I hope!