Health Vs. Career, Life Vs. Money

September was approaching and I knew it was time for me to start picking up the pieces and moving on. Although I was still not feeling 100%, money had to be made and my life had to be lived. I decided that the best thing for me to do was to start working little by little, until my energy level was finally restored and I felt physically able to endure the stress of being a full-time teacher. I needed to think of my health first.

This decision to take my health first and to mold the rest of my life according to its shape presented me with some further tough decisions. I was approached by the Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board, who offered me a full-time position teaching elementary classroom music in the 2007-2008 schoolyear. Wow. What an awesome offer. I am basically being handed a full-time position! But wait ... am I feeling physically capable of doing this? At this point I needed to make a choice between my health and my career. On one hand, I could have an amazing job making lots of money, but I would be jeopradizing my body's ability to heal itself after everything it had just gone through. And on the other hand, I could settle for substitute teaching and making less money for the year, but at the same time I would be giving my body ample time to heal and recover. The biggest thing that concerned me about teaching full-time so soon was the stress of first year teaching. I knew I was still feeling tired and run-down and my body was not fully recovered from chemotherapy. I knew that the stress of teaching would only make this worse.

Ultimately, it came down to what my gutt was telling me, which was: "Your body is not ready for this yet. You want to live!" And, in the end, I turned down the job and settled for substitute teaching.

Mike was later accepted into the Bachelor of Education program at the University of New Brunswick, which we had been hoping for for many months previous. We decided that we would move to Fredericton together for the year. I was extremely excited about this move because it was almost like a first step. It would get me back out of my parents house and away, so I could regain some independence. I also have university friends as well as my brother and his family living in New Brunswick, so I would have a chance to spend some time with them again and rekindle some friendships. I felt confident about taking this first step back into my life.