So, if you’ve looked around this site, you may have guessed that I like ladybugs. My mom would say, “Valerie, you have a ladybug problem.” She likes to say that when I own too much of something. When she helped me pack up my apartment last summer, she informed I had a sheet problem, a towel problem, and definitely a candle problem. But, with the ladybugs, I can shoot back, “Mom, part of this is your fault!” since she and dad gave me many ladybug themed gifts for Christmas.

I’ve loved ladybugs for a good part of my adult life, and I’ve been collecting them all along. But, this past school year, as I worked as a preschool teacher and after school program director, my love of ladybugs hit a new high. I found a series of children’s books about a delightful little girl, Lulu, who is a superhero–Ladybug Girl. By the time I was introduced to Ladybug Girl, there were already three books: Ladybug Girl, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, and Ladybug Girl Dresses Up, with the promise of the highly anticipated Ladybug Girl at the Beach coming in May.

I knew nothing about the Ladybug Girl books when I picked up the first book at Lakeshore in February, while I was picking up supplies for my Winter Olympics camp. But, from the moment I first read that book to my kiddos, I over-identified with little Lulu. See, Lulu has fears, but when she is Ladybug Girl, she can “do anything,” and she conquers those fears. The kids, all of my kids–from preschool to upper school–loved those books. Every time I bought a new one, they couldn’t wait to hear it. And whenever I asked what they wanted to read, 99% of the time they asked for a Ladybug Girl book.

When Spirit Week came in March, I decided that on Character Day, I had to dress up as Ladybug Girl. I spent weeks searching the Internet for all of the pieces I would need: wings, antennae, tutu, shoes (you should totally check out the link to the shoes; they were priceless!), etc. The tutu turned out to be problematic, and just about when I decided I would make it myself, a dance store owner suggested I buy a white tutu and fabric spray paint it red. And so I did. But, that was almost a crisis. I ran out of paint and couldn’t find more of the right color. And, well, let’s just say that as it was it looked like the Bride of Chucky had attacked the tutu. I finally tracked down another can of the paint, and all was saved, but it was scary for a minute.

Character Day came, and my boss joined me in the fun as Bumblebee Boy. We were quite the pair! Ever since that day, though, I have been Ladybug Girl. The kids would call me Ladybug Girl; the other teachers would call me Ladybug Girl. Little ladybug gifties were anonymously appearing in my staff box. It was fun. And quite frankly, I needed something whimsical and fun. Life was not easy at my job the last couple of months. The school board had to make the very difficult decision to close the school. The economy had just hit our little community too hard. We could not go on. I found great comfort in my Ladybug Girl persona those last few months. And whenever I’d get down and it would start to show, my boss would say, “But you’re Ladybug Girl! You can do anything!”

I was job hunting, but there just didn’t seem to be much out there. But,  a few weeks ago, I sent out eight resumes at once–the most I’d sent during my five and a half months of searching. And at least two of them seemed to be very good fits. I thought that I’d be very surprised if I didn’t hear back from someone from that batch.

Then the last week of school came, and I still hadn’t heard anything. I was facing unemployment. On Tuesday afternoon, my Blackberry buzzed with a new email, and it was from my job-hunting email address. It wasn’t a “This email cannot be delivered notice!” It was an actual email! Someone wanted to meet with me! It was one of those eight. A Montessori school, not very far from where I was currently working, was looking for an office assistant and after school coordinator. It did seem like a good fit. They wanted to meet with me on Thursday or Friday morning of that week.

Unfortunately, those were the last two days of our school year. On Thursday I had my class party with my preschoolers, and on Friday was our end-of-the-year assembly. I couldn’t miss either. I called and explained the situation, and they were very understanding. We scheduled my interview for Tuesday.

I almost immediately knew what clothes I would wear–black dress pants, black sleeveless shell, and my white and black eyelet jacket. But, then I needed to accessorize. I have some fantastic jewelry, thanks to my amazing cousin who is a gifted and generous designer. I kept coming back to my red jewelry (a pendant necklace, three bracelets, and earrings). And my co-teacher gave me a fabulous big red purse as an end-of-the-year gift. I was feeling led towards red. Yes, I would go with red.

As I was laying everything out the night before, I started considering shoe options. My co-teacher had given me a fun pair of red flats late in the year. She had bought them for herself, but never wore them because they just didn’t fit right. When she told her kids, they said she should give them to me because, “Ladybug Girl needed red shoes.” So, she brought them in for me, and they fit perfectly. But, I just didn’t know about wearing red shoes to an interview. I knew it was at a school. I also knew that I would never consider it if I was interviewing at a high rise downtown, but I just didn’t know. So, I did what any smart girl would do. I did  a poll on Facebook. The vote was unanimous–red shoes.

So, Tuesday morning I got ready for my interview. As I took one last look in the mirror before stepping out the door I thought, “Wow, I look like Ladybug Girl all grown up.” And off I went.

The interview went swimmingly. Honestly, it couldn’t possibly have gone better. We all felt very comfortable with each other from the very beginning. They shared very honestly some of the issues they were dealing with at the school, and I shared some of the situations I had dealt with the last several months at my previous school. It felt like a very good fit, for all five of us who met. And before I left the school that day (an hour and a half after I arrived), I had a job offer.

(Now, when I told that to my career counselor the next day, she said that just doesn’t happen right now.)

I ran by the mall to pick up thank you notes, since I’d forgotten mine at home. Fortunately, Papyrus had the exact same notes I had planned to use–Thank you notes with a little ladybug right in the middle. I wrote the notes, and got them in the mail immediately. I had three of my references write letters of recommendations (which they did amazingly quickly, because they are amazing), and on Thursday afternoon I heard from the head of school–I absolutely had the job.

Ladybug Girl said, “Yes!”

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