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The Best Laid Plans, part 2

This is a sequel to Monday's post about Drama English and the worst person I've ever met.

In life there are certain phone calls that you dread. Ones you have a premonition of before they ever happen, or the moment the phone rings, you know something terrible has happened. Maybe a loved one has been in the hospital, maybe your child was out late and the phone rings past midnight, maybe your significant other has…something to tell you. Whatever it may be, these exist.

Let me tell you about the call I just had.

I sometimes fear the worst when a boss calls. I know that’s kind of childish of me, but I do. In fleeting moments, I still fear authority and don’t want to “get in trouble” or whatever it’s called as an adult. So when my phone rang this morning and it was my supervisor - she's my boss, but it's not as if she comes to my lessons or anything. She's more of a tutor-pimp - from one of the lessons, I had a long “should I answer?” debate with myself.

Ultimately, I did.

She had spoken with some of the parents of the drama class from hell. A few of them were interested in continuing although they acknowledged that the first lesson sounded like a bit of chaos.

The one, the terrible one who ruined my day and most of my week, apparently had been so worn out after class that his mother thought maybe it was too much for him and he shouldn’t continue.

THAT’S RIGHT. THE WORST KID ON EARTH WOULD NOT BE CONTINUING.

And then it just kept coming: one of the moms wanted to nix her kid’s enrollment because she was not allowed to go into the school and watch the class. I told her she could watch for a couple of minutes but not the whole time, but the school told her she couldn’t watch at all and had to wait outside the building. Nailed it. That kid’s gone.

Suddenly, she informed me that, maybe instead of just having three students, we’ll just cancel it altogether. The group wasn’t right, and it would be brutal to put on a show given the motley crew that had now been assembled.

My eyes lit up. No more of this class from hell? No more of the worst kid I’ve met since my own childhood? No more of …well, that was most of it, I guess. But I was really psyched that this kid was out of my life and seemingly will be forever.


What I’m trying to say is that there are bad news calls and there are good news calls and this was probably the best call I’ve gotten in a while. Even better, it seems as though there’s going to be a replacement lesson (which will be difficult, I know already) that will be longer and thus more profitable for me. Not a bad swing, huh?

The moral of the story, I guess, is to pick up the phone when it rings. Opportunity comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes it comes in the size of a six-year-old leaving your life forever and ever and it's the best thing. I hope his mother isn't reading this, but in case she is, I hope she knows how terrible her son is.

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