The Summer I Was Hired!

What an amazing summer this has turned out to be!

Back in June, I was informed of an opening in the English Department at Omaha's South High Magnet School. After informing the "powers that be" of my interest in the position, I received a phone call from the principal of the school, wanting to schedule an interview.

I was pretty darn excited.

The day of the interview, I was feeling pretty confident. For the two previous years, I worked as a substitute teacher, almost exclusively, at this school. I knew the staff, faculty, and the students. It felt like a natural fit. However, when I went into the interview, all I could do was "gush" about how much I loved the school and everyone who is a part of it. "I love this, I love that," and so on. It was like I was star-struck and trying to make small talk with a superstar.

By the end of the interview, I knew I had bombed it and on the 20-minute ride home, I essentially talked myself out of the position. When I walked through the door, my husband asked how it went and I told him how poorly I thought I did.

You know that gut-wrenching feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know you didn't live up to or meet your own expectations? Yeah, I had that!

Less than an hour after I got home, I received a phone call from Nicole in Human Resources. She asked how I thought the interview went. I lied. I told her I thought it went pretty well and that I was hoping to get a call back. It was like she couldn't contain herself, she quickly told me, "Congratulations! They have decided to offer you the position. That is, of course, if you're interested.

What was I going to say?! Oh golly gee. No, thank-you.

Yeah, right!

As soon as I hung up the phone, my husband and I jumped up, hugged each other, and continued jumping and laughing until tears came to my eyes. The overwhelming excitement was pouring out of me.

Since that day, I have been on cloud nine. I will finally have my own classroom, with my own students. I just hope that I will be able to teach them everything they need to know about English so they can be successful in whatever they choose to pursue.