So a few weeks ago, I was surfing the web, reading blogs and Facebook, checking out the SF markets on Ralan.com—you know the sort of thing. I had been thinking that I probably should start looking for some sort of part-time employment to bring in a little income, rather than continuing—as they used to say—"living on my capital." So I looked at the web sites at TCU, Tarrant County College (what we used to call TCJC), and the University of North Texas, my Alma Mater for both BA (1974, under its former name, NTSU) and MA (1996). I actually applied for positions at TCC and UNT, although it was so late in the summer. "Surely," I thought, "All the hiring has been completed for the fall semester." To my surprise, I was contacted for interviews for both. After an initial telephone interview with UNT, I was contacted for an in-person interview in the form of teaching a demonstration lesson from the syllabus used in the entry-level technical communications class taken mostly by science and engineering majors. A day later an offer of employment was made and accepted, and just ten days later I was in the classroom on the first day of the fall semester.
It had been sort of a dream to someday teach again somewhere like North Texas, but with the collapse of my PhD studies I had about given that up. Now, after a sometimes exhilarating and sometimes terrifying few days, I'm not only employed but full time and on the faculty, at least for a nine-month contract. I've made it through the first week. I've been dealing with a great group of people in the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication. I'm looking forward to next week and the weeks to come.
