June 8th- This is it.

25. Holy shit.

Ya know, when I started looking at the calendar, trying to play off the quarter-century thing, I really didn't think much of getting older. Somewhere along the lines, however, it started to really bother me. Since I only finished school six months ago, I had thought of myself as fresh out of school and 'recently graduated'. Granted, I've got my Masters and so I don't really need to go back to school at all from here on out. Will I? Yes. At some point I'll be back. In the mean time, I- in an uncharacteristically pessimistic motion- started thinking about the prospect of being 25 and unemployed. Granted, I sub. I do the trivia thing three nights a week (Questions? Feel free to ask...it's a blast (free advertising)). Gainful employment is the goal for the coming year. I won't lie: I will be pretty disappointed if, come September, I don't have a job. I know there are lots of people who have said that the market stinks and there aren't a lot of positions and blah blah blah....let's clear a few things up, shall we?

I'm good at what I do. I can tell you that. Conventional applications, resumes, cover letters, etc. require a certain format to get this point across. This is why I firmly believe that these things tend to sound alike; when employers read cover letters, I'm pretty sure that I can guess within a certain degree of accuracy what each one will say.

NOW...I'm told by many districts to send my materials in electronically, which by my own admission is cost-effective and less time-consuming. Two great advantages. The main disadvantage of course is that there's no one to see my face when I drop off a resume. There's no one to shake my hand and (half or whole-heartedly) thank me for my time. This is a problem I have...and here's why:

I tell stories. I think I tend to tell pretty good stories. I'm at least animated, if nothing else. I have a great enthusiasm for whatever it is that I decide to talk about. If I'm not enthusiastic about it, I will rarely discuss it. Now, among things that I am passionate about are (and this is in no particular order): baseball, music, teaching, camp. These are a few of my favorite things, if you will. NOW...if I can't tell stories about these things in a cover letter, or post information of specific instances of my helping students making a difference on a resume (beyond saying "I planned this, managed that" and whatnot), and if there aren't administrators who want to inquire about that, how does this electronic submission thing work out?

Teaching and baseball and Guinness and grilling....

Example: I spent an afternoon while subbing in the ISS room. There was one young man in there for skipping class, and so he was taking the opportunity to make up missed work in the ISS room, which is better than sleeping or sitting there staring at the wall being pissed off at the world (and not himself for skipping so much in the first place). So I asked the kid what work he had to do and he said he was working on a project for global. Not his favorite class, not a good average, and not an easy project (thanks largely in part to not being in school, I'm sure). Now, I decide to talk some ideas for an advertising poster out of this guy, and so we get to talking about marketing and selling ideas- athletes and celebrities with endorsements; commercials; musicians selling singles and albums and touring, etc- since this is what explorers had to do back in the day...and the kid gets it. He legitimately understands the concept of selling an idea to make money....anyway, I see the kid in the hall the next month and ask how he did on his poster. 95. Kid who was failing global pulls a 95 with guidance.

Yeah, Magellan circumnavigated most of the world...but could he move 3 million copies of his debut LP?

NOW...this story has no place on a resume, a cover letter, an e-application. So what the fuck? Anyway, I'm itching for the opportunity to tell a prospective employer this story because it illustrates that 1) I love teaching, and 2) I'm able to make connections that kids understand. THAT'S what I do. So let's get me employed, shall we?

Anyway, that's a pretty solid summation of the frustration I'm feeling as a newly-crowned 25 year-old. This is just part one of a multi-part series of how the 25 years have flown by. Stay tuned.