All that glitters...

...is not gold. 

During my interview day, I was told the class sizes ranged from 12 to 20 students per class with the average number of students being 15.  I was overjoyed to learn this since I preferred teaching smaller groups based on my class size of eight students compared to the class of 30 students I had last fall.

However, as I prepare for the four classes I will be teaching this fall, I received an email a few minutes ago stating all of my classes are closed since they are at full capacity and that I would be teaching 25 students in three of my classes and 18 students in the fourth. 

Oh my....I just felt the weight of grading, scoring, teaching, reading, advising, and everything else that comes with classes of that size quadruple.

However, I also felt my gratitude and appreciation of all those who have been helping me increase exponentially too.  After weeks of working to sort the boxes I acquired from my trip out west in May, I have a draft of three of the four syllabi in progress.  I hope to get to the fourth class by the weekend.  Now that I have all four started and am starting to work my way through ordering the textbooks and piecing together the semester calendar, I'm feeling slightly better.  I am grateful for the job and am thankful in the faith people have shown in my abilities.  I did say I wanted a teaching college job and that's what I'm getting.....even if it is a lot different from what I envisioned based on information that was shared during the interview day.  Yes, all that glitters is not gold..but it can be pretty sparkly silver, perhaps coated in rhodium, making it even a better fit since I don't really care for gold as much as I do silver anyway!

I also know God would not have placed me into this position or in the direction I'm headed if He did not think it was a good fit for me.  Here's to a new year of more changes and working toward a successful first year of teaching capped off with marrying a HUGE source of support who will help me to get through this year along with my parents and other supports.  So bring on the challenges and throw 'em on top of the world...God's got this (with a little help from me and lots of hours of prepping ahead this summer....)!