Strangers Can Change our Lives in an Instant

Everyone knows about the big, high profile events like weddings and babies that we expect to alter the course of our lives. I am not talking about those. I’m talking about the imperceptible moments that sneak up on us, perhaps gain momentum in a series of coincidences and before we know it we are headed down a life path we didn’t know existed, a short time before.  The unemployment office was like that for me.

When I entered the Employment Centre I tore off number 36, sat down on a plastic chair and waited. Eventually Tanya called my number and I joined her in her tidy cubicle. It was Tanya who administered the aptitude test that revealed I should teach adults English. It was Tanya who ferreted out a list of colleges with TESL programs. She kept saying ESL this and TESL that and I finally had to interrupt her and ask her what ESL stood for? “English as a Second Language” she answered evenly and continued administering my instructions. I was to contact the schools on the list and start applying. I heard her call out, - '43' on my way out of the centre.

I went home and dialed Humber College. I did not know that Humber had one of the top TESL (Teacher of English as a Second Language) programs in the country - I didn’t know what TESL was until 30 minutes before I called them. I contacted them first because their campus was closest to my house.  When I phoned the college my intention was to register, let them know I would be attending their school in the fall, here’s your money, see you soon, that sort of thing. Not. The receptionist was snoody. She said the application deadline was on Friday and I better get my resume in if I wanted to be considered for an interview. They had already received more than 500 applications for 24 spots in the TESL course. Click.

Resume? I didn’t have a resume. Interview? I had never been to a job interview in my life. I thought people just registered for school? The world had changed since I finished university and stepped out to raise four children.

I knew what to do when two lambs were born at once or a foal wouldn’t lead. I could bush-hog the big field in a tank top to get a great tan and I could dazzle preschoolers with messy crafts at the co-op nursery school but for the life of me I could not think of a thing to put on a resume or find a single reason why anyone would accept me into the TESL program.

I called Tanya. I told her I needed a resume. “I can help you with that” she said, and she did. She asked me a few questions and without outright lying Tanya whipped up a resume that made it sound like I had done nothing but teach for the past 20 years. She got me an interview. I had no idea resume writing was so creative.  I would have hired me! For the next step, Tanya told me to get my hair done and find some nicer clothes.

Over time, I learned Humber had thrown out 350 of the 500 applications because they did not have university degrees. The remaining 150 candidates including me, were scheduled for group interviews. I was curious to see if that meant I would be interviewed by a group or in a group and in my case it meant both. The three women who had designed the Humber TESL course interviewed hopeful candidates, six at a time. The results of the interviews would be mailed. Thanks for coming out. Shut the door behind you. I was very glad for my haircut and new outfit.

Rural mail is delivered to mailboxes. The kids brought ours in everyday when they got off the school bus. The letter from Humber was fat so I was comfortable opening it in front of them. (It does not take much paper to say, “Sorry, you were not accepted”; I would have taken a thin envelope to my bedroom along with a box of Kleenex). Congratulations my letter began… that word hung in the air for a few minutes. I was going back to school. I was going to be a teacher. It was one of those pivotal events. Everything was going to different after that one word – Congratulations.

I was so thrilled I drove up to Orangeville to the unemployment office to thank Tanya for all she had done for me. I didn’t have an appointment and had to wait outside her cubicle for what seemed like a long time while she created a resume for another client. When she spotted me waiting she wondered if something was wrong. Far from it, I told her I got accepted to Humber College and would be starting classes in September and I wanted to thank her.  “Oh, you’re welcome” she smiled dismissively and immediately looked up at the number board for her next client.  

That was the moment that changed my life.

She didn’t know me from Adam and I never saw her again but in the normal course of her day she took this no-count country bumpkin and gave me a future full of promise and possibility. She changed my life and she did it like it was nothing. I wanted to do that. I wanted to impact people’s lives, to help them, to change their future forever and I wanted to do it deftly, like Tanya.

In my subsequent teaching career I developed a new way to train people to speak English and I wrote a book about it called English is Stupid. This led to other things. You may see me sometime, on youtube or TED.com, maybe at a business conference Opening Lines of Communication in the International Market place… You’ll be fidgeting with your pen and wondering what is for lunch and you’ll hear me say something that will rock your world. I am a stranger that can alter the course of your life in a heartbeat because of a torn piece of paper number 36, a conscientious government employee and a fat envelope.