____head is History

I really have to control myself whenever I talk about this guy because a stream of expletives is likely to excape from my mouth (or from my fingers when typing.)

This week, my colleague, who recently put in his resignation and gave one month's notice completely stopped coming to school.

When they called him to ask what was wrong, he claimed that he has developed influenza. Now, both you and I know that influenza does not actually strike until December or January. And, since his wife is a doctor, I am sure that they are aware of this fact.

So, of course we thought it was strange, and so he was granted a personal visit by the vice-principal and a fellow teacher. Of course, he was found to be in perfect health and was told that his services are no longer needed.

Apparently, he and his wife carefully read over the contract and found that he would be eligible for 20 days of sick leave with pay if indeed has an illness. So, this was their (his) plan. To leave the rest of us hanging, just before an exam period with no files or information passed from him to us. This guy has no class!

And, like we said when we read the resignation letter, it seems like he is an old pro at this kind of thing.

Now, on the bright side (because I ALWAYS try to find the bright side of things), his sudden resignation kind of inspired me to change something in my own life.

Here is a guy who is 38 years old and has been teaching ESL for the past 15 or so years in 3 different Asian countries. And, he got to the point where he realized that he was burned out on it. (To be honest, judging from his abilities & personality, I really doubt that he ever went through a good phase before getting burned out.) Anyway, I asked what he planned to do after leaving this job, and I expected him to say that he would be a househusband, since his wife is a doctor and technically, he does not need to work. This is precisely what he told another co-worker. But, to me, he explained briefly that he would like to write a book. Hmmm...interesting. Though he wouldn't reveal what he planned to write, I imagine that he felt time was passing him by, and that he ought to do some of this stuff before he gets too old or misses the opportunity (like his wife divorcing him and then he would have to work again). In a way, this inspired me to do the thing that I have been wanting to do for the past 6 years but never took that step. So, I did finally make my decision to go ahead with it, and I am very excited about it. So perhaps, _____head coming into my life (and then leaving it again) did prompt me to take this step.

So, there you go. A Bright Side.