The dancing, as ice dancing, was keeping us all occupied and to no small extent challenged. But larger challenges were growing and they began to crowd out our romantic and artistic efforts. Why? Because, to put it simply, eating was more important.
I had hit a wall.
Dreams and reality collided, and had surrounded me on all sides so that I could not succeed in any direction. I zigged and zagged from one ill-considered dream to another. It’s too long a tale to engage in all the details, but simply stated, I had run out of viable options, and in the process, income earning abilities. Furthermore, the business in which I was currently engaged was going belly up, and taking a fair amount of family financing along with it. I had crashed and fell into a deep pit and desperately needed a ladder to climb out. My self-esteem was taking a big hit as well, as my performance record was not impressing any potential employers.
For me, and my dance partner, this dance going back to where I was stepping all over her feet again. She was deeply distressed, and I was becoming more and more humiliated. The only steps that we were doing together were those that kept us together. It was my good fortune to have such a partner, who would stick it out, in spite of the pain now occurring in our dance..
After, some of the dust from the crash cleared, I was blessed with an insight to explore what would eventually be my salvation. However, it did not enter my consideration until far along in the failure process. A sort of a last-minute desperation move – teaching.
I had, on many occasions, taught many topics in different venues. I liked it, and was always asked back.
OK, so what to do about it?
First, I needed, at my stage of life, I was about 41 years old, to see, if indeed, I could find an area of opportunity in the field. I had no formal teacher credentials, so public school teaching would be difficult, if not impossible. But, I went anyway to the City of Buffalo and made inquiries. They were very helpful in steering me into the one area wherein I might be able to make an entry. My initial desire was to teach English, but they said there was no real opportunity there, but with my business background, I might qualify in that area for a starting job.
There were two caveats, however. First, the only available opening would not occur until the fall term began, and second, I would have to come in first in a qualifying exam. Buffalo did not require New York State certification. Their exam was sufficient. The down side of all that was I inquired in October and the opening, if I qualified would not happen until the following September – an eleven month wait.
I went ahead and competed in the exam with two other applicants. Meanwhile, luckily for me I had found another business teaching opportunity in an all-girl school operated by the Diocese of Buffalo – Bishop Colton High School.
I was hired immediately, and began my long-delayed love as a teacher at that happy school. Sadly, the pay was only about three quarters of the public school going rate, but it was a good place to get my feet wet, and learn the teacher dance. The pay may have been less, but some of my best teaching days were spent with those young, mostly Polish descended girls and their amazing nuns. I cannot remember being happier in any job.
One of the reasons I suspect was that, beside the janitor, I was the only male in or near that school. Even the Polish lunch ladies made a big deal out of my presence. They fed me tons of their delicious Polish cooking and, since I was an emaciated 153 pounds when I started there, I weighed 168 pounds eight months later. I came to find out that Polish lunch ladies cannot stand the sight of a thin man, and they took it upon themselves to remedy that problem. Not only had my business gone belly up, but in my struggles, I had lost a lot of weight.
During that school year so many amazing good things happened to me that I have come to truly believe that someone was watching over me. I was starting to get my dance steps back.