When hard work pays off - Slice of life

I've never been a responsible person. Most of my life I was care-free: Didn't have a wife, kids, regular job or even a home at one time. I'd live just for the moment and that was it. If I had food, health and shelter, all the rest was a bonus.

This became even stronger when I was living on the road. I made my money off the streets or electronic festivals and I'd spend everything on the same day, because tomorrow I could just go out and make some money again. Didn't have any bills to pay, nor my family needed anything. I thought it was a good life.

_{This was pretty much all I had when I was on the road}

Also, I've never had any difficulties in my life: if I decided that I was going to be an actor, I'd get the part. If I wanted to become a bartender, I'd get the job at the bar. So life was really smooth for a while. I could even live in a shamanic temple because I decided It was time to explore my inner-self.

But that all changed when I med my wife. From that moment on I had plans, I had dreams, I wanted to be responsible for our comfort and health. At the time I'd just left my job as a driver for movie productions, so it was time to get real and find a steady job. So after a while I could get a job as an English teacher.

I stayed on that job for some months, until I got a better opportunity on another school, and became the drama teacher. My first school didn't like it and fired me, and because my drama job didn't pay me as much, I got 2 others jobs: Teacher at another school and also waiter on a Spanish Restaurant.

There were days when I'd leave the restaurant at 4AM and would give classes at 7:30 AM. It was really hard to work from Monday to Saturday, crossing the city (because my jobs were not close enough) working from 10 to 12 hours a day. This was the first time I worked so much in my life, but it was fun! I loved my students and I played a lot at the restaurant, juggling ice or lemons, doing some acrobatics with glasses and plates, this kind of stuff.

Unfortunately COVID came and I got fired from the restaurant, so I was just teaching on both schools. After a while I was felling to just keep one, and one of the schools moved really close to my house (like 10 minutes) so it was an clear choice which school I'd keep working. But then something happened...

I was offered a higher position, so I became the Principal, starting immediately! One day I was just a teacher, the other I was responsible for 230 students, 59 classes, 10 teachers, all the events, everything. And I didn't get any training, I was learning from my mistakes and trying to do my best. This was last year (2021) and it was the hardest year of my life.

I was working Monday to Saturday, from 10 to 14 hours a day! Later I fund out that I was supposed to have at least one helper, but normally principals have 2 helpers. No wonder I was doing so many hours. And of course COVID didn't help at all, we had to adapt fast, learning how to use zoom, google classroom, keeping the interest of the students, make them open their cameras... it was hell.

Many times I wanted just to give up. I was regretting my choice of accepting this job, I thought I bit more than I could chew, but at the same time I was learning how to organize ahead for events and problems, I was learning how to do worksheets and long time plans, how to keep people motivated in the middle of the pandemic. I was learning how to be a leader, killing a lion everyday.

It was a great path of self improvement, learning a lot of "adult" skills that never before in my life I was worried about, and kept trying to do my best. The reason I didn't quit like in the past wasn't because I was afraid of what other people would say or because I'd feel bad for giving it up. I didn't quit because I understood the importance of that in my life's journey.

Every year there is a prize for the best schools inside the franchise (yes, we have franchises for English schools here), but our school didn't get one since 2018. Even before the pandemic the school was in a bad shape. But now I can proudly say: YES, WE ARE ONE OF THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE COUNTRY!

I couldn't believe that we won. It was a huge validation of all my extra hours, all the blood and tears that I spilled for all my students, all the times that I did something wrong but found a solution. This prize was the result of all my hard work over the year.

I know that this prize doesn't have a big "real world" value, but the feeling of getting recognized was awesome. It made me a more responsible man, that is now ready to achieve all of his dreams. So bottom line: work hard and always believe in yourself. I know I do!

Thanks for reading until here!
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