My name is Kristen Colleen Alesch. I am 24 years old. I was born and raised in Iowa, but have lived in Memphis, TN for the past three years. For two of those three years I have called myself a Spanish teacher and for my third year, I call myself the School Operations Manager for a charter school that is in its first year of operation. For those of you that have no idea what an Operations Manager is, the easiest way to describe it is the person in charge of keeping the facility functioning. I take care of anything from the ordering/ purchasing of the school, to making sure teachers are equipped with the proper technology to provide a quality education for our scholars, all the way down to calling in an electrician when the lights in the girl's bathroom go out.
Although I am enjoying my new role and would say I have a much better work-personal life balance, transitioning from the classroom into a leadership role has definitely been different for me. I say different for lack of a better word because it has been neither easy, nor extremely challenging, just different than anything I have ever done before. As time goes on, I am quickly learning how to thrive in my new role, as well as help others thrive with me in my new role.
One of the particular aspects that has been "different" for me, which is also the meat of my post, is that I no longer "fit in" with people my age that I work with. What I mean by this is that as a teacher, I was able to vent and talk about happenings at the school with other teachers, as they were my peers and friends. However, now that I am in a leadership position, I can no longer interact with my professional peers in the way that I once did. I cannot discuss my views about the new policies and procedures administration put into place, and I most definitely cannot engage in any type of conversation that entertains gossip about the school. I cannot partake in these types of conversation because I am no longer in a parallel role with the teachers at the school. My new role encourages more interaction with administration, than it does with other faculty, which has been an adjustment for me. My age is a key player in this adjustment because everyone on the admin team is quite a bit older than me, so even tho we make up one leadership team, I feel like I'm the oddball because of my lack of experience and age. I am at the awkward adolescent age of my 20's. I can no longer "shoot the shit" with my peers, but I am still learning what it means to be a leader. I told my sister the other day, "I'm too young to be old, but too old to be young," meaning I'm right smack dab in the middle of wanting to entertain my peers, but also knowing I no longer can do that if I want to be successful in my role.
You can also view me at this adolescent age in my military career. I was recently promoted to E5 Sargent (woot woot!), which I am super happy about because making E5 within your first contract has become rather difficult to do with all of the requirements that must be completed now (SSD, BLC, PT Compliance, etc.). This is also going to be a huge role transition for me, not only because I am saying good-bye to the 1175th in Brownsville, TN, but because I am no longer "just" a solder. I can no longer hang out at the smoke pit and gab about nonsense and inappropriate jokes with my peers because professionally, I am no longer a peer. I am their leader. This will be difficult for me to do because 1) One of the main reasons I love the military is because of the people. When I am at drill, I am truly one of the guys and I enjoy our meaningless conversation most days. 2) Although that professional boundary needs to be established between lower enlisted soldiers (what I was) and NCO's (what I am now), this doesn't always happen. Therefore, it will be all too tempting to fall back into old habits, but I know that I cannot do that in order to grow as a leader.
Now that I've spoken about me and the adolescence in my careers, let's talk about the adolescence stage of dating (sigh). This one will be rather short, but I just wanted to throw this in there to reiterate the fact that 24 or any age in your lower-mid 20's is just awkward as hell. So, I can only speak for myself, but dating in my 20's hasn't exactly been my cup of tea. I say this because once again, I am right in the middle. Right in the middle of still wanting to go out with friends and do my own thing and not having to worry about a serious relationship, BUT on the other hand, I am over the one night stands and random hook ups. I crave something more consistent and genuine, however, I am not sure I can necessarily have a consistent, genuine relationship while it not being "serious," hence why I am single lol. Too young to be married, but too old to be having random sex. Too young to be old, but too old to be young.
Anyway, I guess being in this adolescent age of your 20's is just another way of communicating that I am in a massive state of transition. Like anything, I need to not question or rush it, but acknowledge it and accept it for what it is. Although it can be very awkward and uncomfortable at times, I also trust that I am growing as a young professional, friend, lover, sister and young woman. Sometimes in a state of transition it's easy to wish that you could fast forward or speed up time, but I am challenging myself and others my age to not do this. Sit back, enjoy the journey, the long-term and short- term people you meet along the way and learn about yourself. Discover your passions, weaknesses, strengths, dislikes, desires and everything else that the adolescent age of your 20's wants to show you.
"The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place." -Barbara De Angelis
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