I’m leaving it all behind and I feel sad

This will be my last year in education. I’ve been in education field since 2019 and I’ve had 3 long term sub assignments, one year as a certified Biology teacher, and the remainder of time has been day-to-day subbing. I’m a certified teacher, but the new district I moved to in the summer of 2022 has had massive budget cuts and as a result, there are no jobs.

As time passed by, I started to realize that I didn’t miss having my own classroom. Despite the challenges of subbing, I appreciate that I can leave a bad day in the past and never have to address it again. I don’t want to work insane amounts of hours and deal with students’ parents. I’m also glad that subbing has shown me how checked out I am from the field before I put any more time into it.

However, I am also incredibly lonely. It’s hard being disrespected every day by admin, staff, and students. Subs have just as much education as everyone else in my district, but we’re treated as if we were plucked off the streets. I mainly sub in elementary schools these days because I’m a small young female and I have to work extra hard to get a fraction of respect. I try my best, but it’s hard not getting any feedback. I don’t have time to network, nor do I feel like anyone wants to talk.

I’m giving up and I think that is the best decision for me. Obviously, not everything was bad. I also spent a lot of time and money on two degrees that I’ll never use again. I think I had a lot of potential, so it’s a shame how brutal education can be to a person’s psyche.

I’ve seen lots of stories on here about other people not being able to get a teaching job, so I’m curious how everyone else is holding up.