TEACHING ENGLISH

TOP TEN BEST PARTS OF BEING ALIVE IN MY. . . . SHOES:
#10 WORK: WAL-MART TIRE & LUBE EXPRESS AND TEACHING, PART V:

“Want to be a ticket taker?
Want to be a pizza maker?
Lobsterman – Jockey – TV fixer – Ballet dancer – Soda mixer
Do you want to be an astronaut?
Or keeper of the zoo?
You’ve got to do something.
What DO you want to do?” (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

Let’s face it, unless you’ve somehow managed to become independently wealthy or have somehow found someone to provide for you, you have to work. Most of us must work and work a lot to earn our bread. In fact, most of us will spend the vast majority of our adult waking hours at work or working. I’ve been working for twenty-six years and for the past twelve years, at least during the school year, I’ve been working seven days a week. For the past six years, along with teaching, I’ve been changing tires and oil for Wal-Mart’s Tire and Lube Express. Sometime in my mid-twenties, it occurred to me that I was going to be spending most of my time working and since that was the case, I’d better try to find a profession that I would enjoy or at least be something worth while. I tried to come up with some criteria toward that end and ended up with a rather long list of what I wanted and didn’t want. When I looked closely at the list, I started to recognize categories, for instance, a number of items on the list had to do with the work being worth while. I organized all the criteria into various categories. I can’t remember all of the categories anymore, but I remember the gist: whatever it was, the work needed to be worthwhile, almost never tedious, and always a challenge. A couple of years later, I decided to become a high school English teacher.