It is now almost a year since I quit teaching in Thailand. I wrote a blog post about it at the time, but I’d now just like to expand upon this with the benefit of hindsight. I know that there are many people who are considering moving to Thailand and see teaching as a way to do this. I would never try and dissuade these individuals, and I don’t regret the years that I spent in the profession. In the end though I had to admit that I wasn’t very good at the job, and it forced me to choose something that suited me better.
I taught in Thailand for about seven years. During the first few years I was very motivated. I even went and completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE); the official qualification to teach. By the last year though, I’d had enough. The reason for my dissatisfaction with teaching was mostly due to me, but as I lost interest the problems with my school, and just teaching in Thailand generally, became glaringly obvious. I began to dread going to work, and this is not the way that I want to live.
I really believe that we have a path in life, and if we don’t follow this path then life becomes increasingly painful. I previously spent almost two decades on the wrong path and learnt just how bad things can become. I don’t mean to sound overly spiritual here; my point is that a part of my mind knows what I want/need and if I ignore this then I can’t be happy. This is what I was finding with teaching. I realized that it wasn’t really for me about a year before I finally quit, but I tried to continue regardless waiting for the correct time to exit. The more I delayed though, the harder it was to go to work each day.
In the years before I gave up teaching it was always my plan to make my living as a writer. I have always wanted to do this, but it is only last year that it became feasible. Writing is unlikely to make me rich, but I know that this is something that makes me happy and it never really feels like work. I have been involved in freelance writing for few years, and have a good idea about how it all works. It is hard, but the truth is that I would rather write for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, than teach for twenty hours a week.
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I had planned to wait until the next term before turning full-time at freelance writing, but I realized that teaching was just getting harder for me as time went on. I didn’t want to turn into a teacher who was just going through the motions because I felt the students deserved a whole lot better than this. I was also becoming increasingly hard to work with as everything that was going on in the school was becoming a cause of resentment. In the end the idea of returning to that for six more months seemed unbearable so I took the chance, and quit waiting for my life to begin.
I have a wife and son so this type of decision couldn’t be taken lightly, but once I did make my choice there was a huge sense of relief, and the feeling that I’m going in the right direction again. Life is too short for being timid and not taking chances; sometime we just have to go with our dreams and have confidence that we will end up where we should. This is why when I hear people say they want to move to Thailand I would never dissuade them. Sure it can be hard, but you have to go for your dreams.
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I devoted about seven years of my life to teaching in Thailand. I don’t regret any of this, and don’t feel that the time was wasted. I just know that it needed to come to an end. I would say to anyone who wants to teach in Thailand that they should give it a go. You won’t find out if something is possible or not unless you try; most things are possible if we want them enough.
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