after three years, the journey is complete.
the real journey, of course, begins in september, but for now I'm ecstatic.
a small school, grade 7 home room (English, Hist/Geo, Drama), and i teach science to all of the grade 7's and a grade 6. SCIENCE! i'm nervous but think it will be a fantastic learning experience for both of us.
three years ago, i had wanted to enroll in school to begin the adjustment of my degree away from film (i had already tweaked it away from Economics), to English. It was the summer. I was waiting to sign my deal to work on that dreaded children's show, and the showrunner kept pushing it back back back back. When that deal finally finished, i could have taken a summer course to get me a step ahead of the game, but alas, i was destined for other things.
i flew to vancouver, spent a month writing scripts, and was promptly fired, along with the entire crew. I flew home determined to get out of that business. I bought a car to drive to London every week, enrolled in 3 classes, one of which was the very humbling English 020 (first year). i was 30.
while at school, Telefilm awarded one of my screenplays $25,000. The timing, on you cheeky devil Fortuna, was perfect.
my life was changing rapidly, i was taking a risk that i may not have good enough marks, that i may not get into a school, that i may not like it, that i may not get hired. so much depended on so much, an interconnected web of dependencies, where if one strand failed, the entire project plunged.
when school finished in august of 2005, i started working on bay street, editing business documents. a strange strange world, but one full of incredibly bright people who were choosing to live an incredibly draining existence. these office environs are not conducive to human fulfillment.
then i got accepted at one teacher's college. i applied to an extra school, paying the extra $100 just to keep my options open. in hamilton. i got it. so barely got it. and now, after passing the first gatekeeper to get on the list of people who can be hired in the ultra-competitive toronto district school board, i'm actually hired. i am told i am one of a mere 100 or so. that teachers fresh out of school should take what they can get, wherever they can. well, i have, with glee.
now i work on finishing the novel before september begins. the book is done, i am doing my first big edit before i send it out to potential editors/friends.
my agent wants to send it out in September to all the publishers. my book of children's poetry is coming along, a joy to write.
so you see, dear reader, there have been a lot of lucky breaks for your humble narrator throughout this adventure.
it does seem that when you throw your life into fate's hands, Fortuna keeps an eye on your attempts, dropping crumbs or coins along the way (in my case, more crumbs than coins :)
