Sophie Is A Waldorf Teacher

My first experience with teaching was when I was twenty. I was going to school at the community college in Bellingham, WA and was doing an independent study in Raku pottery, and had to teach a class to a group of fellow students. I remember going home that night thinking, “That’s it! That’s what I want to do! I want to teach!” Over the years, what I would be teaching took many shapes. I was going to teach Algebra in a high school, English to college students, the art of jam making to stay at home moms; whatever it was that I found my passion in, I knew that I would be teaching it to others.

            I found that passion in farming, and for twelve years pursued it, always with the goal of teaching others, until I found myself managing The Organic Farm at The Evergreen State College teaching college students how to farm. But, three years ago this passion for farming started to change, and I found myself pulling away from it and the hold it had on me. This was an incredibly painful and depressing time in my life. I often call it my “divorce” because that’s how it felt, like I was separating from a relationship, a love, a whole way of being. I had so much shame about the change I was feeling and tried to fight it, to plug along and push through, but this only made me feel more resentful and bitter towards what my life was becoming.

            So, when 2016 rolled around I started working out the kinks of my life. Either I had to fix my relationship with farming or accept it and move forward. Fortunately, I knew I wanted to teach, so that part was sorted, but where? And what?

            Throughout my life I have played with the idea of becoming a Waldorf teacher, but always put that idea away, because of my history of being a Waldorf graduate and having parents who are both Waldorf teachers. However, I started to reconsider it, to really live into it, and finally came to the decision last September to seriously start looking into a Waldorf teachers training. Just after making this decision I was hired as the 1st grade assistant at the Olympia Waldorf School, and by the New Year was asked to step out of my assistant position and take over being the lead teacher in the 1st grade where I stayed until the end of this year.

            Only days ago, I was offered the third grade teaching position here at the Olympia Waldorf School that I will begin come July 1st!

            During the past nine months here at the Waldorf School I have had numerous moments of validation that this new journey and path are the steps forward that I am supposed to be taking with my life, and this coming summer I will be starting my Waldorf Teacher’s Training at The West Coast Institute in Duncan, Canada!

            So, now comes the weird and awkward part…

            I need help paying for this year’s tuition for my training. If you know me, you know that admitting I need help, or accepting it, is one of the most uncomfortable things for me to face. I’m the all-powerful Sophie! I shouldn’t’ need help! In fact, when a friend suggested to me that I start this campaign, my first reaction was “oh hell no!” The whole idea of asking for help and money was so far out of my comfort zone that I wrote off the idea as completely insane. But, as the days went by I started to realize this whole year has been just one step after another out of my comfort zone, and has been about me learning to put myself out there and be willing to accept what this life has to give me, instead of being resistant to it.

            I’m asking for your support as I embark on this new journey in my life, and I thank you for your love.

 Love,
Sophie