My ex-girlfriend is an associate professor at a prominent university in Virginia.  She has the same degree from the same school that I do.  We were both young professors there once.  They opted not to renew my contract. My buddy is the youngest principal in the school district.  He’s the one who hooked me up with my current substitute teaching gig.  He started teaching at 20 with an associate’s degree when I still had eight years of school to go. 

My ex-girlfriend loves me.  She’s not seeing anyone else.  She still calls sometimes but she doesn’t say anything.  I know its her even if my cell phone doesn’t.

My buddy loves me.  I can remember when his younger siblings were born.  I can remember failed science projects and staying up all night to finish super mario brothers.  I attended the weddings in his family.  He attended the funerals in mine.

Dr. King spent the days before he died working on behalf of striking sanitation workers.  Their picket signs read simply “I am a man.”  Dr. King said that a man without a job feels like he has no right to exist.  I know for a fact that is true.  If Dr. King had lived I wonder if he would have explained how to make that feeling go away.

My ex-girlfriend has been in academia all her life.  She doesn’t know anything else.  The school said I had to go.  I must have done something.  Something really awful.

My buddy has done alot with an associate’s degree.  Paid for it himself, no help from the parents. Figured if he’d gotten his bachelor’s he’d be superintendent.  A Master’s and he’d be headmaster of some fancy private school.  So what must he think of a guy with a PhD who’s substitute teaching?  There must be something wrong with him.  I mean really wrong.

These conclusions are only natural.  To think otherwise would go far beyond extending me the simple benefit of the doubt.

So what do I do? Sit tight in my current job until I can get one comparable to my old one and hope that this somehow builds character thereby regaining the respect of those who mean most to me along with the timeless human dignity spoken of by Dr. King?  You’re right.  I could do that.  Or I could throw away my relationship and quit my job with nothing at all lined up and spend my days blogging.

But that’s ok.  At least my posts rhyme.  Most of the time.