Keith Hamby may have lost his job at John Deere, but he has not lost his spirit. Following his layoff among hundreds, he is looking to a new career, one that he believes is his calling.
“Being laid off is traumatic, under every circumstance, but several years ago I started setting up some other plans, just out of curiosity is where it began,” said Keith Hamby. “I started reading several books and looking at podcasts on teaching. I’ve been a mentor, for the iJAG program at davenport central high, which was a wonderful experience. I was also a mentor with the Annie Wittenmyer complex and I’ve had some other teaching experiences, like in Japan I taught English in Japan for two years. And each of those experiences seemed to add further conviction to where I wanted to take the next phase of my life. And so when I was involuntarily separated from Deere, this just facilitated this transition into wanting to be a teacher.”
Hamby believes his even keel attitude about losing his job can be attributed to his understanding that change is inevitable.
“Over the course of the years I’ve learned not to become too upset about changing circumstances because life is change,” said Hamby. “And if you can enjoy the moments that you’re in in life and realize that you don’t control a whole lot, but there’s some things you do control and that the things that you do control you can plan for and the other that you don’t control, you shouldn’t worry about them.
Hamby will be studying at Western Illinois University. He is hoping to teach in the Quad Cities area during his study with a provisional teaching license.