Taking a Leap Of Faith by Emily Sonderegger


For the last three days of Share the Love, we change subjects to hear from those who have taken a LEAP OF FAITH at some point in their lives. My first guest, Emily Sonderegger, shares how a nudge off the cliff started her leap of faith.

 ***

Taking a leap of faith is a lot harder than it sounds. In some cases, you leave behind everything you know and jump off into a whole bunch of unfamiliar. It’s nerve-wracking at best and absolutely terrifying at worst. You actually have to trust in yourself and others. If you have trust issues, well, it’s not going to be an easy road.



My chance at a leap of faith came three years ago. I was in a dead-end job and hated everything about it. I wanted to quit badly. I NEEDED to quit, for my own sanity. At the same time, I was afraid to make any changes because, CHANGE!! I’m really not a huge fan of change.



Luckily, in my case, the decision was made for me. I lost my job and chose to take my leap of faith right then and there. I paid a visit to a nearby university the next day and enrolled in their graduate program for the next semester. This may not sound like such a leap of faith, but I decided to switch gears completely and change my entire life around. I’d been working in a finance field and switched over to education.



Education isn’t exactly the most stable field in the world right now and there are lots of huge changes coming up in the next couple of years. Still, it felt like the right thing to do. I’ve always been good with kids and I knew I could make a difference.



Fast forward almost three years: I’m nearing the end of my program and will soon be student teaching. There have been bumps along the way, but I’ve never regretted this choice for a second. Switching career paths was a huge leap of faith, and one that I’m glad I’ve taken. Even as a student, I’ve made a difference in children’s lives. I’ll never take that for granted and I’ll never be sorry that I made the choice to go this direction. It’s been a great blessing and I’ll always be grateful for the choices that led me to this.



Emily Sonderegger:

I'm a 30-something avid reader, who would probably rather read than breathe.  I was once asked why I read. Really, the only answer I can give to that is, how can I NOT read? It's just a part of me and always will be.



I also love to write and otherwise exercise my creative abilities with scrapbooking and card design.



I’m currently a graduate student in Education and will complete my program within the next year. After that, it’s on to teaching, molding young minds, and sharing my love of reading and writing.

***

If you missed any of the lovely LOST LOVE posts last week, you can find links to all of them here.

Comments

  1. Barbara WatsonFebruary 27, 2012 at 9:12 AM

    Thank you for sharing your story. My leap, in two years, will be back into teaching. I've been at home with my own kids for a very, very long time, but to get these kiddos through college, I need a paycheck once again. Teaching, though hard at times, is also amazing. (And I, too, adore reading and stay up WAY too late most nights doing just that).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kai Strand, AuthorFebruary 27, 2012 at 9:45 AM

      Oh my gosh, Barbara. I was up until 2 am finishing The False Princess. *rubs eyes* It's gonna be a long day. Thanks for stopping in!

      Delete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:07 PM

    Thank you for giving me the chance to share!

    Teaching has seriously been the best thing that's happened to me, and I'm not even in my own classroom yet. Hooray for leaps of faith!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Susan Kaye Quinn, Author of Open Minds, Presents:

Image
Finding Time to Write the Sequel by Susan Kaye Quinn, author of Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy) Even before I decided to self-publish my new paranormal/SF novel Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy) , I knew it would be a trilogy. But once I had made the decision to publish, the need to get busy on the sequel(s) kicked into high gear. Except that I was also publishing a book. Most writers find it difficult to balance writing with all the other demands in life. Even people who are lucky enough to write full time (which I am, since I write while my kids are at school), there’s still a tug between writing time and all the other things that need to be done. Once you’re published, this all changes, and not for the better. Now, not only do you need to write and get the kids to school and get the laundry done, but you also need to market your book, which can mean everything from actually getting it published (edits, covers, websites, blogs)...
Read more

Robot Writing - What It Is & How to Avoid It

Image
Many beginner writers fall into the habit of what I like to refer to as “robot writing.” It’s when you basically write your scenes like a grocery list. Ex: Marcy stood and walked across the room. Then she picked up the candle stick to inspect it. She blinked when she noticed the spot of dried blood. Marcy dropped the candlestick and ran from the room. I call it robot writing because when I'm reading it I tend to fall into a robotic pattern and start to sound like the robot from the old Lost In Space series. "Danger. Danger. Will Robinson." You may as well put numbers in front of each sentence: First Marcy stood and walked across the room. Second she picked up the candlestick to inspect it. Third she blinked when she noticed the spot of dried blood. Fourth she dropped the candlestick and ran from the room. Don’t get me wrong, robot writing is absolutely acceptable in your first draft, no matter your writing experience. Your first p...
Read more

Don't Be Closed Minded. Read a Banned Book. #Giveaway

Image
On this list , compiled by the ALA, of the top 100 challenged books of the decades 1990-1999 and 2000-2009, I've read: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Adventure of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Blubber Crank The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Dead Zone The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things Fat Kid Rules the World The Giver Harry Potter (series) The Hunger Games (series) The Kite Runner The Lovely Bones Olive's Ocean Speak Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes That Was Then, This Is Now Thirteen Reasons Why Twilight (series) A Wrinkle In Time I would recommend any of them, but especially the titles I've linked. The thing with me and banned books is that I don't get it. The banning thing. Why would you ever feel the right to keep a book out of the hands of other readers? Why would you feel you have the authority to say what some can and cannot read? Do you have the right to voice your o...
Read more