The need for smiles

Cute foods make me smile:

via milkyglow

And smiles are so necessary for me right now since there are a lot of uncertainties happening in my life right now.  The primary one being finding a full-time teaching position.  I've been a teacher for three years, but all in temporary and/or part time capacities - as in being a sub, an after school teacher, and a teacher for a community-based organization.  I long so dearly for my own classroom.  

Mameshibas make me smile:

I finally finished my last requirement for my teaching credential - which was passing that dreaded test I talked about earlier in the summer. YAY - that makes me smile just as big as this mameshiba video. So now that means it's time to look for a job.  I'm so close, yet so far away.  And with cuts to education, the job outlook is glum, cut throat, and competitive.  I'm trying my best to figure out how to just even get an interview!  Other teachers advise to just continue prodding -- even just going into a principals office and handing your application to them.  The idea of that frightens me to death!! But with so many other people applying, how else am I going to stand out?  When I submit these online applications, it feels like no one will even read the thing.  The hardest part of this process is that I have no doubt in my ability to teach... What I do doubt is my ability to get a job!  And what I mean by that is that it's so hard for me to network, or to understand the social protocols necessary to get what you want in the professional realm of things.  I shut down and get so scared, nervous, and shy when it comes to networking/rising the ladder or however you want to phrase it.  

Inspirational Quotes make me smile:

So, one thing I need to do is just to remind myself of the above.  I just need to do what it takes and believe that it will happen.  In a scene of my absolute most favorite movie, a grandpa tells an aspiring young artist to just "march right in there and show it to them."  She responds with pessimism, saying, that's not how it works.  Although, in reality, that truly is how it works sometimes (the movie ends with pretty much making the point that that's how it does indeed work).  While that scares the crap out of me, it's time for me to seriously just "march right in there and show it to them."