A New Adventure

I've started a long, difficult process of saying goodbye to colleagues and students. After all the applying I've done to try to get a job in Seoul, I have accepted a position at a university outside of Seoul, but a little closer than where I am now. Most of the time, especially with students, people receive the news without asking questions. But sometimes people want to know why I am moving to a new place. I've given a variety of answers but I'm not quite sure what the truth is. 1. It's because I want to work at a university that has a system more organized that increases the chances of me being successful in teaching students how to have a conversation in English. 2. I want to become a better instructor by working with colleagues in a more collaborative environment where what instructors think has an impact on how the university organizes its system. 3. I am displeased with the new curriculum that my current university is using and I can't bear the thought of continuing where I am at if the same curriculum is going to continue to be implemented, regardless of feedback that the whole of the international faculty thinks about it. 4. I've been teaching at the same university for four years and I want to experience working at another Christian university with similar values which also has a strong reputation throughout Korea. 5. I don't feel satisfied doing what I am doing where I am currently teaching and I want to see if that changes if I teach at a university with a different system. Of course there is no easy answer to this matter. I would guess that number five is the winner. If that is true, this is only a commentary on myself and has nothing to do with anyone else. This sort of thing resonates with my experience of the first college I attended after I finished Bible School. The university started to have some difficulties and there were people on both sides of the fence. Some said we should jump off a sinking ship and others said that if everyone leaves the ship would inevitably sink. I'm starting to wonder if my colleagues or I am thinking that way. Whatever the outcome of that discussion, I am learning how wrong my thinking has been about how little of an impact I am having on those around me. I guess one could say I am learning about the ministry of presence and that it may not make much difference what kind of work I do. I wonder if I am the type of person who finds no satisfaction in his job in and of itself, no matter what it is, but simply in connecting with other human beings. All that said, there is a bittersweet feeling about changing jobs, and I guess that is true regardless of what country one lives in. I am feeling a lot of that bittersweetness as I see the looks on students faces as they learn I am leaving. I hope we can continue to keep in touch, though I am sure that professors who are on campus will be students first choice, and that's probably the way it should be.