Hello everyone, my name is Jon and I am an Adjunct Communication Instructor living in Southwest Virginia.
I chose the screen name Alan Grant in honor of one of the main characters from the movie and book, Jurassic Park. I did this not because I think it’s cool or like dinosaurs (though I was a huge Dino-Riders fan as a kid in the late ‘80s), but because it changed my life as a child. When Jurassic Park came out, I was in Elementary School and I hated to read. My parents could not get me to read. I was a B-C average student.
Then my parents took me to see Jurassic Park. On multiple levels I loved the movie, but it sent me after the book. I bought the novel and read it about 8 times. If you’ve ever read one of Michael Crichton’s works, this is not kid stuff. It was adult science; it was adult math it was college-level theories. It was way above my reading level, but I read it until I understood it. That opened up the world of reading to me. I started to read a lot, other Michael Crichton books and a lot of science fiction. Within a year I became more of an A-B student and I know it altered the trajectory of my life. I might not have gone to college; I might not have stayed in to earn a Master’s degree in Communication…where it not for Jurassic Park.
I am still a prolific bookworm. I enjoy a lot of history, particularly military history and some science fiction. I also write some fan fiction from time to time. I have a long history with online writing-focused RPGs and collaborative fan fiction set as some variation of a RPG-themed-game. My two favorite science fiction universes have been Star Wars and Battletech.
My life has not been stuck entirely in books. In 2007 spent 3 weeks in Greece as part of a Study Abroad program. The pic on top of this blog is the cool, tanned outdoorsy-looking me on the Greek island of Santorini.
I have been a journalist; I have been a communication consultant for a business consulting and training firm. I have had two careers sink out from under me for very different reasons. I have a funny habit of picking underdog careers that are struggling.
What I do now, what I have fallen in love with, is teaching. I am an Adjunct (that means part-time) Communication Instructor at a local community college and a university. I mostly teach public speaking and basic newswriting. I fell back to teaching after the recession cost me my last job and I have been doing it ever since. But I’ve become more convinced than ever that it’s my niche. It is the most gratifying work I have ever done in my life. I bump into former students all the time who tell me how much they enjoyed my class, and how it helped to build their confidence, not just in public speaking but in life in general.
In my class I push people outside of their comfort zone. It’s all out there on display. Their worries, their fears, their personal stories, their hopes and dreams. The public masks come down a bit. I think I see more of the true selves in a few short speeches across 15 weeks than most of their friends and family see in a year.
It has also had an impact on me. I am not a social butterfly; I am not the life of the party. I was the painfully shy kid all the way up through my teenage years. When my wife and I go out with friends to Buffalo Wild Wings or something, I’m the guy quietly sitting there making thumb prints on the condensation on my glass. If I can open up and talk, it’s usually to one person. My introverted brain usually can’t handle a loud group discussion. I am the quiet one in a loud world.
Most of the people in my personal life cannot imagine that I teach (let alone teach public speaking). I’ve even had a few people come watch and walk out of it amazed at this other version of me.
When I teach, that tiny part of my brain that is extroverted, is wacky, is funny, is outgoing, gets to come out and play. For an hour or more, that person runs the show. Very often, it’s an adrenaline high for me. When it’s over and that high fades, I am wiped out and have to stare at the walls for a while to recharge my batteries.
I tell my students all about this, and how it affects me. The fellow introverts in the room definitely take notice and many have learned from it.
My wife of 8 wonderful years is wondering how long she is going to have to support my teaching hobby. Adjuncts don’t make much. I know full-time fast food managers who make more money than me. The paint is falling off my old car. Academia doesn’t offer a lot of full-time positions these days (fun fact, 60 percent of all higher education faculty in the USA are now adjuncts like me). I splice together enough work at two higher education institutions to teach a full load of 4-5 classes a semester. But get paid a fraction of what a full time professor makes in salary and benefits (not ranting, just stating facts).
But I honestly struggle to imagine myself doing anything else. I know anything else I might do; I will probably enjoy it less. This is a daily internal struggle for me. Every time I stare at a costly bill, or my credit card debt, or the issue of retirement savings. I think about how I should do something else that is full time, making more money with benefits.
Twice now since 2009 I’ve mentally “broken up” with teaching and devoted myself to intensive job searches. I’ve had lots of interview but no decent offers. It’s like the universe won’t let me leave.
I try not to kick myself too much. At least I’m “stuck” doing something I enjoy. I think in retrospect I’ll probably look back on all this as some of the best years of my adult life.
But for a lifelong learner like me, stagnation is tough. I am always looking for new things to learn. Usually it’s about something history related or about cultures or current events or history. That path of lifelong learning has recently led me down to economics and in turn, to learning about cryptocurrency. That’s why I am here. I don’t have the cash to invest in something like this. But write, and maybe get a financial return? That’s interesting.
I view this as an experiment, one that I am happy to take part in, and sincerely hope it will succeed. Teaching in the classroom is fun, but Steemit is letting me step out of the classroom and participate in something that is on the cutting edge of societal change. Changing economics, changing society, all of it. I feel a little like I’m working for Rockefeller or Carnegie but in an era where men’s fashion doesn’t approve of men wearing hats (we need to change that next; I can rock a hat).
That is thrilling and I am happy to be here with you.