Nice to be back - big changes

[kombi1976]

In the time I've been away from THL my life has been changed a lot and has definitely not been dull. 

As many of you may know, I'm a high school music teacher in rural NSW. It's not a career I've really enjoyed for about a decade. Things came to a head at the end of 2019 after a couple of bad years. I was a candidate for the Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party in the state election in March 2019 - something I really enjoyed - and then went to China with my eldest son as he represented Australia in a non-native Chinese speaking competition, only a week or so before COVID hit! I arrived back from China in early November, looked at the problems in the school I was teaching and decided I had to have a change. 

So I took a year's leave without pay in 2020 and did casual primary (elementary) school teaching instead. My stress level plummeted immediately and really enjoyed the much less complicated nature of younger students in the 2 primary schools I was working. Kindergarten was very fun and my morale and mental health I was able to recover. Interestingly, despite the fact lockdown put most staff at home I still was working a few days a week and I enjoyed the relaxed routine during this period, as well as creating music and science-related short vids to post on the school's Facebook page for students to watch. I halved my income and we cut through our savings but my wife launched an interior design in the second half of the year (in the middle of the pandemic, no less!) which has gone from strength to strength.

In 2021 I scored a full-time job doing a day of Music and 4 of RFF (Relief from face to face) at the better of the primary schools which was back to my normal wage, and then in 2022 I got a 1 year temporary contract as the only Music teacher at a small high school in a little country town right out in the countryside. It involved relinquishing my permanent job at my first high school but I definitely couldn't go back there. It was very rewarding working in the small high school, 1 hour round trip each day (100km there and back) and I enjoyed it. But when the full-time position came up it didn't even go to interview and instead was given to a transfer. 

It was a bit of a kick in the guts after my hard work at the school and I also missed out on another job a bit further from home later in the year. The high school principal was disappointed I failed to get either position as he was very happy with my work, but I figured God had a plan for me. And so at the beginning of 2023 I found myself teaching relief (substitute) work 4 days a week at the high school and 1 day a week at the primary school, not a great outcome.

Stepping back a year or so, in December 2021 I stood for local council as a Shooters, Fishers & Farmers candidate and was elected quite comfortably. So from the outset of 2022 I've been on the local council and have been part of some very effective changes. We first removed the previous mayor and elected a new, honest mayor (the elected councillors in our town elect the mayor, not the residents) and that caused the resignation of the previous council general manager - which was an excellent thing. I was a key part of employing a new general manager (now called the CEO) who is a licensed shooter and is very honest and hardworking. Things have improved dramatically although there are many things still to fix.

Then in March this year I stood for the state election again as an SFF candidate and raised the primary vote from the 9.5% in 2019 to 14.3% this year. The party were extremely pleased although I was hoping for a better result myself, closer to 20%. At the end of Term 1 a two term contract job came up in town to teach Music full time at a school only half a mile from home. Literally a couple of blocks walk. And I was completely weary of the drive, only to do substitute teaching, which is soul crushing job. 

So I found myself back in town in April walking to work, which was much nicer, and teaching Music full time again. But things still weren't that cruisy. Kids, unfortunately, have lost their manners. It didn't happen overnight, it's been happening for the 21 years I've been on the job. But public education has become a toothless tiger and COVID and social media have only made things more acute. And even those schools that are actively combatting behaviour are pushing it uphill. So I quickly found myself frustrated again. I said to my wife again, as I have said for several years, that if something came up suitable I'd leave education.

About that time a staff position came up in SFF. I thought I wasn't qualified for the job, even though it was the sort of thing that I'd been dreaming of doing since the election in 2019, and I said as much to one of our members of parliament who is a friend. He told me that he and our party leader had been talking about potential candidates and my name had already come up. As it turned out all the skills I'd picked up during campaigning and being a local councillor were the things they needed - advocacy, meeting and communicating with stakeholders and community and industry groups, some speech writing, political nouse, identifying issues, etc. So I trepidatiously wrote my application to our party leader and then went to a meeting with them - and got the job!!

So for the first time in 21 years I won't be a teacher and in mid July I'll be a staffer for our party leader in state parliament. I won't have to move to Sydney but I will stay with family there while parliament sits. I'm really looking forward to the work. And I'll get to see my eldest son more as he studies just down the road from Parliament House and lives with my in-laws.

So, praise God. Obviously He had plans for me and was waiting for the right time. 

[gitano]

That's quite a saga, Andy!

Paul

[kombi1976]

It is. And today, in 30 minutes, I leave school teaching for the first time in 21.5 years. I'm looking forward to a beer at 3:30pm!

[gitano]

My youngest is a teacher, but has given up the profession except for "substituting" because in the Western World/1st-World countries, the gov't is so heavy-handed and public(gov't) school is a place of indoctrination, not teaching.

The world is changing; rapidly and drastically. I am personally convinced that The End is near. Very near. It is my opinion that, independent of religious perspectives, Humanity cannot viably continue on the trajectory it currently races along. In other words; 'something's gotta give.' I have my prayers for what that 'give' will be, but regardless of those, Human History would strongly suggest that Humanity, or at least civilization as we know it, is genuinely 'circling the drain'.

Paul

[kombi1976]

And here I am outside Parliament House on Monday afternoon. I'm just beginning to understand my role and it's going to be very cool.......once I know what I'm doing!

[gitano]

Best of luck!

Paul