The fat is in the fire.

I've been offered a job at a large, suburban, public high school teaching five sections of physics, starting in the fall.

And I accepted.

My god, what have I done?

I commented to some people close to me that it's odd how years of planning, preparation and even anticipation of this moment still didn't fully prepare me for the shock of actually saying "yes" when offered a great position. I'm still reeling a bit, but this all just became a lot more real for me.

I don't "officially" have the job yet, since they can't legally hire someone without a certificate. But we do have an agreement that upon successful completion of the Alt Cert course at Benedictine, the job is mine. (So the school and I are not married yet, but we're engaged.) It seems quite solid - and by that I mean that they're very sincere and I have little doubt that this deal is all but done - but there's a little discomfort associated with not having a contract signed. Guess I better get used to a little discomfort regarding job security.

There are 13 people in my class at Benedictine, all following a similar path. So far (1.5 weeks into the 8-week class) only one other person and I have gotten jobs. I'm told that it's normal for so few to have jobs at this point in the summer. I trust the wisdom of the folks here since they've been doing this for more than a decade. But i'm VERY relieved to be in the position I'm in.