TFA Acceptance!!!

So, despite telling myself that I was relatively cool, calm and collected about final notification day, I found myself registered online every 10 minutes checking email and posting to an online forum commiserating with fellow applicants waiting for the notification to go out.  


TFA tells us that it will be out by 8pm EST, but every other notification has come hours early.  Someone posted to the message board that they received their notification at 1pm during the previous cycle.  

Then I noticed that my transitional funding page had been updated since I last looked a few weeks ago, and a dollar amount had been entered into the "Interest free loan" section.  The number was formatted strangely, so I tried not to put much stock in it.  Perhaps it was just a technical glitch?  But why would they go through the trouble of calculating my financial assistance if I hadn't been accepted?  I started to have hope.  Some on the forum also noticed their financial information updated, while others did not.  Thus, it was not a glitch across the board.  Still, it wasn't official and even though I started to hope that I might be accepted, I still didn't know where I'd be placed.


Finally, at 2:47pm PST (5:457pm EST) - the email arrived:

Dear My name here, I am pleased to extend you an offer to join the Teach For America 2011 corps! Your acceptance into Teach For America reflects your outstanding accomplishments, leadership potential, and commitment to expanding educational opportunity for children in low-income communities.

The email goes on...but doesn't say where I've been placed.  I have to login to the TFA website.  I have to answer a question about the likelihood that I'll accept placement.   And only then do they allow me to see that my offer is to teach English grades 6-12 in Memphis.


My head was literally spinning and the rest of my afternoon was kind of like a haze.  It was fate.  All signs point to Memphis.  There's no longer a question of where.  There's no longer a question of what subject/grade.  Of all the programs I initially applied to, somehow it came down to two programs both offering me an English position for middle school or high school in the city of Memphis.


Originally I felt called to service.  Today I feel called to Memphis.  While I haven't decided officially - it feels like the right thing to go and I'm leaning towards the TFA option over Memphis Teaching Fellows.  But I plan to speak with both programs to hash out the details.  


Suddenly there's so much to do in such a short period of time.  Despite the amount of complaining I've done about my job over the past year, it won't be easy to leave.  I do feel appreciated there and now that I'm entertaining an official offer, I kind of feel like I'm betraying my employers who have treated me mostly well.  Besides a job, leaving behind friends, roommate, pups, volunteer organizations, mountains, and a city that I love has not really hit me yet.  But I'm excited about the future and the adventure and the possibilities.