So my best friend became my boyfriend in September 2015. I went from being single to being in a committed relationship. My family would probably tell you that I needed to BE committed. But be that as it may, I followed my heart and it changed me in so many ways. It would be a while before I made any decisions, however. I knew that Jasper would never come back to the States so if I wanted a relationship that was not long distance, I’d need to move. Which was fine by me.
But I am the queen of the long distance relationship. In fact, I spent nearly two years commuting to the suburbs of Philadelphia in my only other adult relationship. I wasn’t worried. I had been thinking about going back to Scotland since my mom died. I never expressed in any of my blogs what Scotland meant to me. Ever heard the term “soul country”? It’s a country that you have no genetic connection to, and yet when you step off the plane, you feel like you have come home. That was, and still is, Scotland for me.
I first went to Scotland in the Summer of 1992. It was my first solo trip, and I went to visit my friend Laura who I’d met in DC where she was an exchange student living with an administrator who worked at WIS. Laura and I became good friends in my junior year of high school and when she invited me to Scotland, I jumped at the chance to go. I stayed two weeks with Laura and her family. By the end of that trip, Laura’s parents, George and Kathy had become as dear to me as my own parents. I ended that trip calle=ing them Mum and Dad, like everyone else did. I did indeed fall in love with Scotland and resolved to come to Scotland for University. Laura’s parents took me to see St. Andrew’s. The minute I saw the campus I knew I wanted to go there. Alas, St. Andrew’s wasn’t to be, but in the summer of 2011 armed with a Greek passport and a passing knowledge of accounting, I pulled up stakes in the US and took myself to Scotland. To learn more of my adventures there check out my blog from that time: http://www.edinburghenchanted.blogspot.com.
I resolved in 2015 to get back to Edinburgh but was certain that I didn’t want to do it on the strength of an MBA that I barely used. Also Bread and Chocolate was beginning to get a little stale. I played with the idea of going back to Edinburgh for the first half of 2016. I left it too late. On 23 June, the UK the UK voted to leave the EU. I woke up on 24 June to a very different world. I knew that at my age, I did not want the uncertainty of moving to a country that two years later might tell me that I wasn’t eligible to stay. I was crushed. There went my dreams of living in Scotland again. I had to come up with another strategy.
A customer at Bread and Chocolate suggested that I take a course to certify in teaching English as a Second Language or ESL for short. It’s also called ELT or English Language teaching. I began to consider the possibilities, and I started looking into programs. Briefly, I considered going to London to do the course but ultimately decided to stay in DC to do it. After a ton of research into the options, I settled on Cambridge University’s Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults or CELTA. The CELTA and the Certificate from Trinity College in Dublin are considered the gold standard for ELT in the world. Employers in the field look for these two certificates when they hire. And yes, the certificate is from THAT Cambridge. I signed up for the course that ran from the end of July to the middle of August 2016.
It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my adult life. Asking why, yet? Stay tuned that’s up next.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 