A Teacher's Pride

I wrote a play and for the past two years, it has been my obsession. Now it is over. It was produced to remarkable and entirely positive outcomes—some anticipated, many not—and one thing it did was allow me to include a scene to honour two of my teachers from grade five (which was centuries ago). Those two teachers gave a sad little boy reasons to live.

I contacted them to ask if I could use their real names in the script and they were okay with that. A year and a half later, I contacted them again to see if they wanted to be my guest on opening night and then accepted (and brought their children). On opening night, I was very conscious and proud during that scene knowing that they would realize what a wonderful and positive influence they were on my life and that here I was, at age 65, still raving about them. I was particularly happy that their children would see how loved their parents were by a past student.

When I got home, I got this email...

Hi Chris!   

I just wanted to touch base with you -- and give a quick update on one of your Emily Carr "The Business of Art Practice" class students.   

At the end of the class you'd asked us to map out our goals for the short term/long term future, and in my presentation, my goal was to get myself to a point where at the end of 2012 I could go part time at my regular day job, and then by the end of this year be in a position to quit and be fully self-employed.   

Well... The timeline kind of jumped a year. I put the wheels in motion, put the word out to the Universe, and then everything started falling into place. Someone I  had done a book cover design for started a boutique publishing company and asked me on board as their art director. Then a couple author friends asked me to design their book cover with another publisher. That publisher loved what I did and asked if I'd like to do more for them. Next thing I knew, I was so busy I was basically working two full time jobs and having very little time to write my own books. So at the end of 2012 I asked my boss if I could go part time, which she was happy to accomodate. But due to hiring freezes and such, they had to make me an outside contractor. It wasn't until I walked out of the office that last day that I realized I'd basically just quit my job and was now, a year earlier than planned, fully self-employed. :-)  So, I wanted to thank you so much for your class, and thank you for the foundation that helped me make this work. I hope more of your students make their way to successful creative careers too!   

All the best,  Wyanne (fall 2011 class)