Apr 25, 2018
By Willy Villalpando
Every single day we have to make an endless list of decisions. From something as simple as “What am I going to watch on Netflix today?” to something as life changing as “Where am I going to put in a job application?” Sometimes, those decisions are obvious and easy to make—other times…not so much! Sometimes these decisions seem to make no sense at all. A little over two years ago, I made one of those decisions that didn’t make sense—but it would change the pathway my life was on.
Two and a half years ago I was working for Rite-Aid, getting pretty much 40 hours each week, besides starting my senior year of college taking 16-18 units a quarter. My grades were slipping because of the way my boss was scheduling me. He wasn’t giving me enough time to do the work I needed to get done for school. So, I put in my two weeks’ notice.
After about half a quarter of living jobless (I mean, with my family, so I wasn’t too bad off), I decided that I needed to try to figure it out and find another Job. I decided to look into the local school district and I found a position called “Child Development Apprentice.” I thought it looked interesting and applied. A week later, I had an interview. I interviewed—and heard nothing for almost two months. I finally got an email at 6 a.m. saying I had gotten the position. But there
was a problem—they gave me an afternoon position. I had requested a morning position since I was still in school. So, they froze my hiring, to wait until a morning position opened up a month later. I started the week after the position opened. I loved it. And that was when I made my next crazy decision.
While I was finishing up the senior year of my bachelor’s degree, I decided to concurrently enroll in the community college down the street and take Early Childhood Education classes alongside my already 16 units. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy! But as I kept taking classes, even as I finished my BA, I fell further in love with the Early Childhood Education field and decided that I wanted to get an associate’s degree. Yup, that’s right—I decided to start my associate’s after I finished my bachelor’s. Honestly, that was the decision I felt the most subconscious about. All of my friends who had also gotten their bachelor’s were going on to their master’s degrees or going into the fields that they had spent so long preparing for. I felt like I was throwing away all that hard work and starting over. I felt like people would be judging me for that. But I still took that step and kept taking ECE classes. As I was taking classes, I started learning about the qualifications that I needed to become a preschool teacher. In California, there are six permit levels which people can apply for (rather than teaching or administration credentials) which determine what they are qualified to do in the child development field. (They range from a Teacher’s Assistant all the way up to Program Director). Well, I found out all of these permits have alternate qualifications—and guess what! My bachelor’s degree, along with the classes I had already taken, left me only one class away from qualifying for the second highest permit (Site Supervisor). This week I received that permit (currently the last week of March).
While I was making all of these decisions, they didn’t make sense. But when I look back on this journey, it does make sense. God was leading me down a path that He had prepared for me. “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalms 27:14) God has prepared a life for us, full of decisions—decisions that don’t seem to make sense, decisions that seem to have little importance—but God has divinely placed these decisions in our lives. He prepares to lead us each down a path that will lead us closer to Him and the plans He has for us. So jump in and prepare for the best decision of your life.
