April 4, 2014, by Guest blog

Treasuring the here and now

Post written by Josephine Adams Even though I’m living somewhere where the temperature is surpassing 20 degrees most of the time, only working a few days a week and enjoying the lack of coursework in my life right now, there’s a certain sadness that’s been catching me unawares for the past few weeks. It isn’t homesickness, but rather the opposite – having spent seven months in Corsica, I’ve come to realise a number of things; about myself, but also about growing up and exploring the world, and not procrastinating, but treasuring the here and now. I’ve noticed how easy it is to get complacent, and to assume that you’ll be able to stay in your happy position for as long as you want to, despite how exciting the future may be, and really had a chance to realise what I’ll miss when I return to ‘normal life’ back in the UK. Now that I’m planning my final lessons, organising goodbye dinners and frantically scouring the internet for flights back home, it has become even clearer than ever that I have developed a huge connection to my new town, island, and schools, not to mention the people that I have met along the way, who have been invaluable to me over this short time, and hopefully will remain lifelong friends. I’m not sure that any amount of preparation can ready you to head to a different country for the best part of a year, armed only with a suitcase, a rucksack, and what you remember from last year’s TEFL module. I went into my assistantship hoping that it would help me to come to a conclusion about what I wanted to do with my life, and it’s certainly fair to say that I’ve not ruled out the idea of teaching! I’ve loved almost every minute of my time here, and am now looking back fondly, even on lessons that seemed rather disastrous at the time. But my time here would have been nothing without the people who have seen me through. My teachers, for whom nothing was ever too much to ask, the other assistants here, and even my students have all made a great impression on me, and taught me endless things – I can only hope that I’ve been able to leave even something behind in return, and not just become yet another one of ‘our old assistants’! There’s no doubt that I’ll do everything that I can to keep in contact with the people who I’ve met here – they have all genuinely changed my life for the better, and are living proof that the big wide world after university isn’t really so scary after all!

Posted in Making connections