Teaching as an adjunct can be a lot of fun. It is also challenging. As I have encountered a number of situations, I realize such a blog can be helpful, both to me and to others.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Praying I'll Get There

One of the scariest situations I had while teaching as an adjunct occurred about a year ago when I had to drive to campus. I actually needed to go out of town for the weekend to help settle my father’s estate and I left my car at the airport. I was planning on flying back to the airport and driving from that location to teach and then back home after class. Based on where I teach and the locations of the airports, I actually drove further away from my home and flew out of a different airport. In other words, my home is 40 miles from campus. The airport was about 20 miles further away, so only 20 miles from campus, but 60 miles from my home.

When I got back to the airport and was ready to drive back to campus, I did not like the way the car sounded, I did not like the way it felt, I did not like the whole situation. I wanted to leave the car at the airport but I needed to get to campus. I drove the car. I held my breath while driving and prayed every step of the way, but I drove my car.

I recently learned of a service where if you have an accident, rather than having to bring the car in to repair the scratches and dents, people come out to where the car is and look it over. So for instance, if you need a town car window repair, they come to you; you do not need to bring the car in.

This is the type of service, in terms of mechanics I would have liked this day. I could have gotten the mechanics to come to the airport and rented a car to get to campus while my vehicle was being fixed. Ultimately, once I got it to campus, I had the junkyard come and tow it away because I was done driving it. I was too afraid to even bring it to a shop. So, when I hear about car services where people are willing to come to you, I certainly take notice and have interest.