Career Change: The Doubting Phase

This is the 3rd installment of my "career change blog."

I know I promised everyone my next blog would be the Onboading Process. That blog is nearly completed and I will post it next.  But something came up today that I thought I'd share:  The Doubting Phase.  <shriek>  Okay, it's not as bad as all that, but I did start having some doubts today.  Not on the career change - that is still going strong.  In fact, I realized recently that I have been either learning or teaching my entire life, therefore my commitment to education is deeply rooted.  Even when I wasn't in a traditional academic institution (high school, college, etc.), I was always learning - whether it be taking dance, acting and voice lessons, learning to play the ukulele and the kazoo or even the 8 months that I spent learning American Sign Language just for the hell of it.  I love to learn!  As for teaching, I've mentored fellow co-workers and young actors for years, which is a type of teaching.  All good.  No doubts at all on changing my career.

No, my doubts were a little more cerebral than that.  And I have Ron Howard to thank for this issue.  "Ron Howard?" you say.  Okay, maybe it's actually Gary Marshall who's to blame.  Anyone want to hazard a guess??  Yes, Happy Days!  Today, I was on the commuter bus to Boston in which they were showing episodes of Happy Days for anyone who cared to watch.  No, I wasn't watching them - I was reading (naturally), but seeing those episodes up on the small screen brought back memories of my youth.  Invariably it also brought to mind what kids today are watching.  I grew up watching The Brady Bunch, Happy Days and The Love Boat.  All of which are a far cry from The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and Gossip Girl.  That was when the doubts started to creep in.  How in the world am I to reach these streetwise inner city school kids?  Yes, I lived in NYC for a long time, but I never really was a New Yorker.  I could put on the act of a New Yorker as a survival mechanism, but it wasn't really where my heart was.  I am a genuinely nice person who genuinely wants to help and nurture others.  To be a real New Yorker, you have to be a cutthroat b***** and have no qualms about stabbing people in the back and stepping on them to move up in your career.  It's probably why I failed so miserably in my performance career.  I was way too interested in wanting my friends to be successful and I didn't have that ruthless mentality to succeed.  Oh well.

Are these tough kids from Boston or Lawrence going to be interested in Shakespeare, Austen or Dickens?  Okay, even if I move away from the classics - because quite frankly I didn't love the classics when I was in middle and high school.  But will they even want to read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?  I hope so!  And while I know that teaching these inner city kids could be a tough row to hoe, I really didn't have many doubts until today when I realized that there are huge generational issues between these kids and myself.  All I can say is:  "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated."  Anyone, anyone??