I’ve learned in doing this podcast that everyone’s career pause is unique. They vary in length, reason, and many of other ways.
Today’s guest, Sally Gasper, is unique because her pause came right at the beginning. She had always planned to be a teacher, but she married young and had five children in quick succession. As her children grew to be school-age, she chose to homeschool them and truly enjoyed her role as their teacher.
As they grew older, however, they transitioned into traditional school and Sally found herself still dreaming of becoming a teacher. I loved hearing her story about how she returned to college and graduated just before her 40th birthday. It wasn’t always easy and she shares the struggles with financing her degree (fortunately, aid was much more plentiful than she expected), rebuilding her self-confidence (online courses were a surprising help for this) and adjusting to new roles at home when she took a full-time job as a high school teacher.
Today, she has a full life as an English teacher at a STEM high school and wouldn’t have it any other way.
