Living the Dream of a 6 Year Old Boy!!

When I was a little boy I was always wanting to teach. I would pack out my toys and teach them. Or if for some reason I couldn’t teach them (for who knows what reason, maybe they pissed me off and I sent them to the Head Master) I would teach the animals in the house. I didn’t teach them anything specific. I was young man, even before I went to school. In the photo where I am wearing the blue jersey with the sailboat on it (which by the way is a 8 out of 10) I remember still that the Cartoon series of Ghost Busters was on T.V and I would teach the dog (who is with me in the photo, I think his name was Max) all about busting ghosts. I was of course the expert in the field, hehehehehe.

In 1990 I was in Sub B, now in my day this is what we called Grade 2.  You had Sub A which was Grade 1, Sub B which was Grade 2 and from there on it was called Standard 1 to 10 or Matric. But by the time I reached Matric, due to the hype of the movies, it was now called Matrix. Quite disconcerting if you know what that is. But who was I to argue.

I remember when I was in grade 2, I was sitting in the hall one winters morning, while it was raining and one of my class mates had an animal book with him. We paged through it and he stopped at the picture of the horse and explained to me that he was confused. He said that he knew it was a picture of a horse but that the word underneath it had an –r- in it and according to him the word horse doesn’t have an –r- in it. Now I learned to read and write on the farm in the Free State, long before I could go to school, by one of my cousins, from my Mom’s third husband. 

I am the one with the red circle around his head.

I cannot remember the boys name but I know it is the one in the brown uniform. He was wearing a brown uniform because he had just arrived from a new school and didn’t have our uniform yet. By the way, by this time we are no longer living in the Free State, but n lovely Cape Town.

So I decide to take it upon myself to try and explain to him that the word underneath the picture of the horse is in fact the correct word. But in pronouncing the word, the –r- is silent. Well I tell you he created such a stink about it and about me being wrong that I think my exact words to him were something like: “Well then stay stupid”.

The bell rang and into class we went. Those were the days when they still prayed in the morning. So the teacher prays, everyone settles down and he asks the teacher, Mrs DeKlerk, with her extremely blue eye shadow, about this word underneath the picture of the horse. She explains the silent –r- business to him and at that moment in time I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. Fuck knows what I want to teach but I wanted to teach. You know, one day when I grow up.

Years passed and about two or three years ago a bunch of friends are sitting in a restaurant talking about what we do for a living. It was almost like a scene from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ but with smokes, more laughter and more wine which explains the more laughter. We all spoke about what it is that we are currently doing, I am a Personal Assistant and the spoke about what, as kids, we wanted to be one day. And without thinking I said: “Oh That’s easy, I wanted to be a teacher.” My friend Naomi, who has known me since we were 6, said to me that, that is awesome cuz I am doing it. Lots of wine and being in a mindset of talking about a 9 to 5 job I had to think and then it hit me. Right between the eyes.

1998, The year I started teaching at the Family Altar

I was living the dream that I set out for myself when I was just a little boy of 6 years old. Yes I have a 9 to 5 job, which by the way I do love. No I am not just saying that cuz my boss also reads my blog, I actually do have an amazing job, work with awesome people and I enjoy going to work. But after hours, I am living my dream. I teach students and whats best is that I am teaching them something that I am extremely passionate about. I am not saying I am a good teacher, as a matter of fact sometimes, most of the time, I think I suck, but I love it. I love doing it. I love walking into my class and seeing people there of all ages and work with them and see how they grow and develop. It fills me with so much joy to look at them a year later and know that I played a very small part in helping that person. It is truly my passion. That is why I am sad to finish with the current postulants but on the 7^th of August a new group will start and then I get to try and help them as well.

That 6 year old kid back in 1990, knew what he was talking about when he decided to be a teacher. 8 years later in April of 1998 I gave my first class. I was still very much a kid, but that is where the dream started.

Mwah!!