I worked at an Easy Spirit store at the hoity toity mall where all the rich cows with foot problems shopped. Two things about Easy Spirit: their shoes are designed for comfort, not fashion, so one gets real bored with the merchandise real quick, and people with SERIOUS FOOT ISSUES love to shop there. When the big August sale rolled around, the store would fill up with these evil old bats stocking up on walking shoes and screaming at you because you were out of 9AAA in pewter. I felt desperately compelled to work my alma mater into the conversation at any opportunity, just to regain some of my dignity. Upon reflection, I imagine the net effect of this was to cause the evil old bats to pity my folks that I wasted such a valuable education on such a pathetic career.
I had re-submitted applications around the area school districts, and even wandered into a job fair, but I wasn't holding my breath. Then, the week before school began I came down with strep throat. I was already barely getting by (or rather, getting by with generous support and angelic tolerance on Anna's part) and losing a week's worth of wages was a terrifying prospect, but one that had to be borne, as I couldn't even get out of bed. Anna's patience was further tried by the presence of my phenomenally useless boyfriend, who "took care" of me during my illness by ensconcing himself on our couch with a liter of Jim Beam and demanding that Anna cook him something.
In a moment eerily reminiscent of my first career breakthrough with Gaston County, my mom was again the one who got the call. A middle school in Charlotte needed an English as a second language teacher very, very badly, and the fact that I had, on a total whim, checked that I'd be interested in teaching that subject apparently had fully qualified me. I called the principal in a feverish fug, managed not to make a complete ass of myself, and got the job.
In Gastonia, I had begun the year completely at sea. I had hated student teaching and had serious doubts about becoming a teacher. I hated Gastonia, I hated my roommate. All of my college friends had gone away and those who remained were a rock'n'roll dope-smokin' too-cool-for-school bunch with whom I had less and less in common each day. Anna turned out to be the one bright spot in the whole mess.
The first night I went out with her, a group of us had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal I cracked open my cardboard cookie and read the slip of paper. Even in the moment I realized I had a genuine fortune in my hands -- I taped it in the upper left-hand corner of my windshield to help me remember, as I shuttled between Gaston County schools, headed off to the mall for another day of fun at the shoe store, then pulled into the parking lot of Sedgefield Middle School to begin my career as a teacher of English as a second language, that things were going to come together, and they were going to be okay. This is what my fortune said:
You are headed in the right direction.
posted by Holley Wilson Mayville @ 10:46 AM
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