What are the stages of grief again?

Fuck if I know.

It is always possible that I could lose yet another course. Yes, enrollment is that bad, folks. If I drop to one class, frankly, the only things that would keep me on campus is the loan deferment and the Spanish 102 class. Teaching a class gets you a free class. Why would I give that up?

So, what is the plan?

Well, I am fairly confident that I can snag a slot as a lifeguard instructor for the upcoming summer. I need to get rolling on the online component of the training, which is, I think, the only aspect which really gives me pause. I do better in an actual classroom setting in my humble opinion. However, my opinion be damned, the rent, again, is riding on this.

If I get that slot then I can probably make up about half of what I lost in Adjunctland. The key, after that, would be to regain at least a quarter to half of the remainder. For that, I think more and more that a position at the Longview Rec Center is best.

The Pros? They know me and they’ve seen me swim laps thus they have some level of confidence in my abilities. I am on campus three days a week anyway which means I could probably work in the afternoons after my Spanish class.

The Cons? It is minimum wage and in order to sweeten the pot, I’d probably need to volunteer to come to campus on either Tuesday or Thursday in the mornings. However, if I worked fifteen hours a week at Longview and picked up three weekends a month as an Instructor, things might work out well enough.

There is one potential benefit to sticking only with lifeguard instructor work and that is that Tuesday-Thursdays could be used for the writing effort.

I just don’t know. The good news is that we won’t need to worry about any serious bills until April Fool’s Day.

I think the most depressing aspect of all of this is that I hoped the Lifeguard Instructor slot tied in with summer lifeguard work might finally push my annual income close to $30K. Now, I’ll be lucky if I can reach $20K.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

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