The Grand Scheme of Things (II)  July 15th

Listen to this blog! If you don’t feel like reading this blog, let me read it to you.

Last post I mentioned that being a contestant on Jeopardy! was “part of a grand scheme of getting my life together” and that I would talk about it at a later time. Well, now is that time.

Ideally, if I were to be a contestant on Jeopardy!, they would have me on in 2012, shortly after I finish my teaching degree in the 2011 fall semester. Then I would have to win at least one game, but the more I win, the better, of course. In my first appearance, Alex Trebek would ask me what I’m going to do with myself since I just finished my undergraduate career, and I would be doing nothing else in particular because it’s the middle of the school year, and there are no permanent positions available. That’s a given. I tell him I am seeking to be a high school chemistry teacher. Then a few employers will find me mildly interesting because I am a Jeopardy! champion, and that makes me cooler than practically all other applicants and any current teachers in their schools. Now if I didn’t have job security because no one wants to teach chemistry, I would because I make the district look good.

Then I have to win enough times that Alex asks me about my goal to get published. I don’t know where that ranks in the interesting things about me, but if I’m feeling unlucky, then I guess I better put it down for my second appearance (how ever it works). Maybe one agent or editor or publisher is watching and thinks I’m interesting. Maybe. If I win a lot, then I become a 15-minute celebrity, and that gets my foot in the door because anyone who does something slightly interesting and gets air time for it is allowed to get published. Otherwise, you have to go through a grueling process of waiting and rejection, and God knows I’d be one of those if I’m a nobody.

If all goes as planned, everything is great. My poetry and the only novel I will ever write will be published, and I’ll have a stable career as a chemistry teacher. The timing isn’t that important since I will probably get a teaching job with or without Jeopardy! However, if this crazy scheme doesn’t pan out (it is rather specific and would be quite difficult to pull off), at least I will be what I am working to become: a regular person with a regular job at a regular school where the Xerox machines don’t work when they don’t want to. I will simply strive for my students not to hate chemistry, although most of them probably won’t care about science no matter what I do. It’s okay. That is my primary dream anyway. This “grand scheme” is really just a side project.

By the way, I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at midnight. I did not reread the book, so I was able to appreciate the movie for what it was: the movie. I thought it was well done and very enjoyable, but the ending was disappointing. It might actually be my favorite of the movies, even though it’s my least of the books. (I thought the writing was mediocre at best, and the excess of teenage relationship stuff was poorly executed. Oh, and Harry is so emo.) Anyway, I look forward to seeing it again with my dad, who also read the books. And there were enough Minerva McGonagall moments for me! She is my fictional teaching idol.