Reinventing myself, again

I think I will take 2015 as my transition year. It began prematurely towards the end of November 2014 when my British daughter flew into town unexpectedly. After approximately 10 days she was followed by her son. After about two weeks her husband arrived. They all stayed with me. My daughter took over my house, my car, my life. 

Early in the New Year they went back to England but my grandson’s best friend came over to stay with me. After a few weeks my grandson’s girlfriend came over and stayed over, too. Remember before all this activity I lived alone. They all came and turned my life upside down. 

All these guests came between November and March. Of course they gave me little bits of breathing space when they would go on out-of-town trips. But feeding all these people and keeping house for them was a drain on my person and my budget. When my British grandson left in July, he was replaced by another grandson who stayed with me until September. All this activity taught me that I really wanted my old life back, when I had my flat all to myself, when I could walk into my guest room and see it ready for guests and not the royal mess it was when my grandchildren and their friends were around.

All through that time what did I do? I more or less hung around the house to be available to them if they needed me. I knitted in front of the TV set to make my car and driver available to them. I did jigsaw puzzles on my computer to keep my mind occupied and my mouth shut to make life easier for them. In the process I completely forgot about me.

Until September came and I had my life to myself again. Then I began to teach writing again and enjoyed it. I got demands to teach knitting and jewelry making again. Now I decided to have a more active life next year. I will teach everything I know again. After all I am old. What good do I get from all these things I learned how to do? I might as well teach them.

So I will teach Discovering Writing starting on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, every Saturday until Feb. 27, 2016. Why so long? Because I teach a new method of writing and I refuse to release my students until they have learned it and learned it well. As it is I don’t even know how many of them continue to use it.

Another way of viewing Discovering Writing is to see it as writing from the heart. It really makes a good Christmas gift for someone precious to you. I charge P10,000 for the eight classes payable up front so I have some assurance that the students will attend all their classes. If you want to give it as a Christmas present to your mother, your wife or girlfriend, any of your children over 21, text me.

I am giving in to my students who took Discovering Writing and giving part two. I call the second part Joy of Self-Discovery. To take this course you need to have already graduated from my first series. These classes will be held once a week on Wednesday mornings.  Text me if you’re interested.

 On Monday afternoons at 3 p.m. I will teach knitting. I don’t have a starting date because I don’t know how many people will be interested. For this series I will charge per class because after the first one you may decide you don’t have the patience to learn. I will charge you P750 per class just to see how many students I will get and their degree of interest.

On Tuesday afternoons at 3 p.m. I will teach Jewelry making.  Again I don’t have a starting date because I don’t know how many people will be interested in taking it. For the crafts classes I will charge P750 per class and you either buy your own materials or buy some from me.

I am also going to be teaching writing in corporations so I will be very busy next year. Not that this will make me rich but definitely it will keep me busy, make me meet new people and enjoy myself. In the years I have been teaching I always have fun with my students especially the ones who are more mature. We talk and laugh a lot.

As of today those are my plans for next year, to reinvent myself from grandmother to professor of writing and crafts. If you want to improve your people’s English, text me. I think I can do that too. Be warned that I will have to charge high for that as I’m sure people who don’t speak English well — the majority of Filipinos — will make me want to tear my hair out.

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