First Big Rejection

I haven't posted in a little while as there hasn't been much to write. I've applied for a few new jobs and hadn't heard anything about interviews. In the world of job-hunting, that's not really good, but not horrible either. Really, by now, I should have had at least one interview.

The school where I was a long term substitute for a couple positions had posted a middle school opening. I had worked with the middle school principal some, but the high school one was my main supervisor. The high school principal went to a different school last year, so he isn't around any more. Since I sort of knew the middle school one, I went to talk to him right after the position was posted.

We had a nice discussion and he gave me some pointers for my application. I left feeling pretty good and thought I would at least be called in for an interview. Naively, I thought that was the least they could do since I did a great job there and really proved myself to be a quality English teacher.

When I hadn't heard anything in about a month, I called the district to find out where they were in the process. They told me that they were just sitting down with the applications and that they would begin calling people in for interviews. That was about two weeks ago, so I figured I would have heard something by now. But as I'm overall a pretty optimistic person, I wasn't convinced that I was out of luck.

Today I got the standard School Spring email thanking me for my application and stating that I wasn't chosen for the job. Needless to say, I'm a little upset. Not only did I teach there and have a good rapport with the other staff members, but I even talked to the principal. He told me that if I could handle teaching in St. Albans, it would be a breeze to come back to Fairfax. (Which is probably a false statement, but that's beside the point.)

Basically, I'm upset that I didn't get the job, but also worried about what this means for my future prospects. If I can't even get a job somewhere that I've taught before, how can I expect to get a job somewhere else?