When I taught writing as an adjunct lecturer for three years at the ASA Institute in New York, I found myself swimming both in safe waters and wild currents, always searching for shore, only to be thrown back into the stream. Teaching for me was the most bizarre, wonderful, and hardest work I've ever done. It earned me an award, "Most Popular Teacher" an honor never handed to me before and ironically given to me as I exited, blown out, fried, and yet equipped with enough ammo to blast through what unknown to me would be the roughest rapids yet as I swam into the sea of freelancing.
Man, have I had a ride and thankfully it's not over yet, won't be over til I hang it up and I just made a bargain with the universe for 90. Maybe 90 and then I'll swim back into the ocean from whence I came.
So what I'm finding out is everything I told my students about success is coming to fruition. "Only those who make it are the ones who jump the hurdles, solve the problems, get up after failure after failure," I told them, and now I live it.
The only thing necessary are oars.
Today I found something I had printed out at the school. It was a quote by Christopher Morley and I had tacked it onto the wall of my little spot in the teacher's area. It was a foreshadowing of what was to come. I was trying to tell the others my road was calling to me and I had to go. Looking back, often I'd run back if I could, but that door's shut. When I'm not shaking I know it's for the best. When I'm wounded and alone, it leaves me panting until I remember what I told my students. Standing inside this circle should be treacherous, but more than anything leads me home.
"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way." - Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
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