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The First Promise I’m Making to 2026
Here’s to a Year of Saying Yes
“Just Do It!” was Nike’s marketing campaign when I was in my first year of a master’s program for teaching English as a second language. At the time, I was considering taking a two-year opportunity to teach English in Madrid. With just under one semester of teaching under my belt and my high school Spanish, I was not the ideal candidate. But there it was: on billboards, on TV, in magazines. Just Do It!
Well, I just did it.
My first month in Madrid couldn’t have been worse. My work visa didn’t come through in time, so I arrived after the term had started. Easing into the new culture and job was difficult. I was told, “Here are the classes you are teaching, here are the books. Other teachers have been working extra hard subbing your classes.” Somehow, it sounded like that was my fault.
Did I already say that I had less than one semester of teaching experience? I was dropped into the deep end and had to learn to swim.
And it was raining. It rained every day, all day, for the first two weeks I was in Madrid. But because it had ended a long summer drought, everyone was happy—everyone but me. I was miserable: I didn’t know what I was doing; I didn’t have a permanent place to live; and I was always wet. But things have a way of turning…
