Back to School

I got some bad news the other day, I won't be getting the opportunity to coach this fall. The head coach at WMS (and a teammate of mine at MNU), Brian Essex said they had enough teachers apply for the coaching positions that they couldn't offer the position to a non-teacher, per district policy. He said if it was just on merit, they'd hire me. He said his vice-principal and athletic director told him the same thing. Well, I guess that answers that big question.

I had already decided if I didn't get to coach, I was going to enroll in a French class at JCCC. Which I did, not long after I found out I wasn't coaching. In fact, I applied to JCCC on Wednesday evening, the application was finished by Thursday afternoon and I enrolled in FL 140 (French I) about 3 hours before the first class. So, last night I went to Aquinas High School for my first French class. This song kept running through my head as I tried to find my classroom.

The professor said she'd let us out early because we'd all be crying pretty soon, which was true of me. The fact that she went so fast, I hadn't been able to buy a book yet and others in the class seemed to already know some French made me completely lost. We had to walk around the room and do some dialogue; it was quite humiliating. I'm a visual learner, so I got NOTHING out of the hour of listening to her talk. Once I get the book, though I can start to learn.

Why am I doing this? I'm not totally sure but I know I've had the desire to learn French since we visited France two years ago. When a professor of mine from college, Randy Beckum, told me that I could teach at European Nazarene University with only a master's, I decided that someday I'd love to spend a sabbatical teaching at the EUNC extension campus just outside Paris and then maybe take a month to tour France. I wouldn't mind buying a retirement home in the south of France, either. Maybe Provence or the French Riviera?

I'll also be fulfilling one of my final New Year's Resolutions.