Meet my adjuct professor, Sirius, who audits my classes for fair pay in cat treats.
If you've followed my recent angel food cake / banana cream pie conundrum, you'll know that I'm re-evaluating my life to discern what I do merely out of habit, and what areas I might want to reinvent.
And though I have loved my twenty-year-long career as a math teacher for homeschooled high schoolers far more than the normal person's ability to comprehend - "Wait, you literally enjoy solving algebra problems??" - I realize that in order to play this "Let's reinvent ourselves" game properly, I must consider that maybe it's time for me to choose a new career path.
Maybe. I'm not committing to anything. Just playing with ideas.
And as always in these "Which path shall I follow?" moments, I turn to God and ask him for a wink and nudge to steer me in the right direction.
After a chance conversation with a friend who owns a small business, I saw a fresh opportunity to lend my passion for writing to her beautiful and profoundly important just cause: she operates small, family-style care homes for people with dementia. The idea of supporting her cause gave me a thrill, and opened my mind to a new sense of possibilities.
Yet THE VERY NEXT DAY, chatting with my nephew who's a fancy PhD doing scientific research at a major university, I received an important reminder. He encouraged me on my mission to make math accessible, friendly, and fun, and pointed out that my work is very much a just cause, and something that the world desperately needs.
Hmm. Was that a wink from God? Or more of an eye twitch? Hard to say.
It was just a few days later that I received another one of those surprise emails from a faraway student who has been following my math lessons on YouTube, and decides to say hello. This one was from a man working on his lifelong dream to complete his bachelor's degree. Math, he explained, has always been the thorn in his side until a year ago when he stumbled upon my online lessons and things finally clicked. He mentioned that it was Saxon's Lesson 59 that really did his head in, and led him to Google around till he found me.
Beautiful story, beautiful human being. I definitely felt God's elbow tickling my ribs.
But it was only a few moments after I finished reading this message, set down my phone, and opened my textbook to begin recording the day's math lesson that I felt the full force of God taking me by the shoulders and giving me a good hard shake, all the while winking at me with a sweet, sassy smile.
Because the lesson for this day was Lesson 59.
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Read more stories about my life as a math teacher lately:
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