Amanda! This is such a great film that really shows what a sweet panosrelity you have! I love it! Also, did I spot a Loktah album in there? Awesome! Can’t wait to work with you again this year.
– A comment on YMWW #35: Playing House received sixteen months after its posting.
By the time I got the twenty-first notification for a spam post comment that had nothing to do with my writing–and even less to do with me–I knew it was time to take back my blog. Though my New Year’s resolution to write once a month (ha!) is marked with failure, very little else in my life is.
Here’s what you’ve been missing.
When we last saw my love Jenn, she was working for a patent translations company in Midtown Manhattan. She very quickly had to switch gears, but found herself in LIC, Queens, working as an office assistant at VOICE Charter School. This was right up her alley, as she now plans to pursue a career in education policy. That’s right, we’re double-teaming the education system! Jenn loved out-smarting the teachers, hanging out with fifth-graders, and functioning as a classroom spy.
But this job, too, came to an end. Not because they had no need for her–on the contrary, they loved her and never wanted her to leave–but rather because she had a calling from a higher power: the City of New York itself! Like a phoenix rising out of the fire, one of the random job applications she dispersed all over the Internet came back in the form of a job offer from the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. My lovely little Bunny is now a Policy Analyst for all the Manhattan borough parks, prepping her for the “policy” component of her “education policy” dream. Even better than the location of her new office, which is just two blocks north of Columbus Circle near the southwest entrance of Central Park, is the fact that her job comes with a salary. SA-LA-RY! To a young, transplanted couple, acquiring that is tantamount to winning the lottery.
That extra cash could not have come at a better time, now that I am only working weekends at Bubba Gump. I have no time for serving shrimp to foreigners during the week because it will conflict with my CLASS SCHEDULE. Undeterred by my rejection from NYC Teaching Fellows, I applied and was subsequently accepted to Teachers College at Columbia University–a step up I’d say. Starting this Fall, I will be working toward a Master’s degree in Social Studies Education and an Initial Teaching Certificate. I will observe/lead middle and high school classes during the day, and take college courses during the afternoon. I hope to become a high school history teacher (because adults don’t listen when I tell them cool facts about the past). Thankfully, this program is only a year long, meaning it will only cost an arm or a leg, but not both.
So here are: a salaried government worker and a forever-indebted grad student. Wish us luck.
Hey look! They’re becoming adults!
Young Man Went East 