My Job -- My niche Part 1

In April of 2008, I embarked on a new adventure – substitute teaching.
I was laid off my second job in two years and needed to pay the bills.

Stepping back a few months -- My wife, an educator herself, kept telling me I would be a great substitute teacher. I didn't disagree, but I was, admittedly, quite trepidatious about substitute teaching children I hadn't taught without any preparation (long-term or short-term). I have had a lot of experience with children and adults -- teaching classes, leading seminars, etc. -- but had that prepared me for substitute teaching?

So, full of apprehension, I applied after the beginning of the school year. I was told there were no openings for substitute teachers at that time. Whew -- that was close.

Back to the second lay-off in two years – eventually, I found a job as a telemarketer (a job I really did not like because I did not excel). I started work in October, and in December all the workers in the building (including the night crew) were called into a special meeting with the president of the company to relate how much he appreciated us, but we were all going to be laid off as of February 14 (Merry Christmas and Happy Valentine’s Day).

Between the time of the announcement and my final day with the company, I frantically searched for another job – mostly sales jobs (sales jobs tend to be drawn to me – especially insurance sales, for some reason). I did receive offers to work for two different insurance companies (imagine that) and a pre-paid legal company. After weighing the offers out, I chose to answer one offer, and went through the process of signing up for training for the state test. After about three weeks, I seemed to be getting nowhere with studying (I graduated with a 4.0 at Greenville College in Illinois – after having a very rocky college career prior to actually asserting myself to my studies – and I have an IQ of over 130, so I can’t claim a learning disability). I finally realized that my instinct was trying to tell me something. Therefore, I went back to the drawing board.

In the meantime, my wife began drawing unemployment for she was no longer employed as a visiting assistant professor – I guess there was nowhere else to visit. For this reason, she began her own job search. In the process of that job search, she applied to Kelly Educational Services to work as a substitute teacher (she had done this in Ft. Worth, Texas with great success). As timing would have it, they were in great need of substitutes. They were coming to the end of the school year, and were going to need more substitutes to cover for unused personal days as well as other teacher absences. When the representative contacted my wife and told her this, my wife said, “Well, you know, my husband applied last year, and was told there were no vacancies at that time, but he would be contacted when there were. He would be a great substitute teacher, would you like for me to have him reapply?” The representative told her to have me call her ASAP.