When I got home to LA, I thought about teaching. I knew that the university would never have me come up just to teach one class, so I thought about the other classes I could possibly teach. I looked at the course catalogue and picked about six classes that I knew I was qualified to teach. I created six syllabi for those classes. Yeah, I know. I'm a crazy person. Didn't give it another thought.
Then I came back to teach that class. It went extremely well, but then I felt like I was getting the cold shoulder from the department. I wanted to set up some meetings with some folks about some potential teaching opportunities, but there seemed to be things going on behind the scenes that I wasn't privy to. And I was told that while they could pay me for the first class I taught, they wouldn't pay for me to come back. It was then that I decided that I didn't want to give away my expertise for free. So I declined the invitation to teach the second class. I knew that I couldn't give away information for free. There wasn't even a barter situation. It wasn't like they were setting up contacts for me.
Then I went back up for the wedding of a friend and walked into the office of the department chair. She told me a position had opened up in the department for the following school year to teach playwriting. It would only be for a year. But it would be five courses: two sections of Intro to Playwriting, a class in Adaptation, a Playwrights Festival Workshop and a class in Social Justice and the Arts. All of this sounded amazing and I immediately got excited.
But it also made me nervous because the guy who I took over for when I taught there was also applying. He had more experience than me. And he was teaching there longer.
Then I thought of something. The class had been offered at Santa Clara for years under the leadership of the guy I subbed for in the Fall of 2011. Because they wanted to keep the class on the curriculum, they incorporated it into the University's Core Curriculum. This was designed to keep enrollment up. I taught it with 17 students (the cap is 20). The next year it was taught, there were 25 students in the course. And this coming school year, they now want to offer two sections of it. That seems like a remarkable change in the course of a year and a half. And I think I had at least something to do with it.
I had a big impact in a short amount of time. The students and faculty seem to want me around. That gave me some confidence. So I went about my business and started putting my application together to be ready when they eventually would post the job. As I was doing this, I reached out to a colleague for a recommendation. Then I got some more news. The job was no longer just a year long position, it would now be a three year gig. I was prepared to change my life for a year, but to change it for three? A good friend of mine remarked that this would represent a major arc in my life, versus just hopping out of my life for a year. This was a CHANGE.
Is this what I had manifested? I went over all of the choices and declarations I made over the past six months, all of which are detailed above. Did I do this? Is this my destiny? Or is it an acknowledgement that more is out there for me than I initially thought?
I don't know the answer to that question. But I'm just continuing to put the energy out there and l'm continuing to ride on the Universe's wave to my destination.
And I'm continuing to Visualize yet another opportunity. It's certainly an adventure.
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