Author Archives: WestEndGirl

"I Think You Should Apply for It!"

While living in NC for 14+ years, my husband and I would pack up the fam and make the 8 hour trek home at least twice a year and sometimes more often.  On the way north, we eagerly awaited the chance to be greeted by the Monongahela River which flows under a bridge somewhere near Morgantown, WV.  Without fail we would shout “Hello, Mon!”   – I know, super corny.  At that point in the trip we could get a signal from WDVE and it was as if we never left.

Our trips back to NC were always bitter sweet.  It became a tradition to discuss moving back while we drove through WV, VA and most of NC.  Eventually, it was almost as if we were reading from a script debating the pros and cons of the issue.  The discussion always ended in a draw – although we both missed our hometown, it probably wouldn’t work out.   Then we would go back to our day to day existence and look forward to the next trip ‘home’ and the next lament-filled trip back to Charlotte.

That is until our last trip in July.  Nursing a hangover from a party (what can I say, I’m a lightweight) with high school friends and former teachers while my husband drove and tried to keep the kids quiet, I heard the faint beeping of a text message.  Summoning all the strength I had left from trying not to puke in his car, I leaned over to check my phone.  It was a 412 number I didn’t recognize right away.  It said, “chk fb wn U gt hm.”  Thinking there was an embarrassing pic from the party posted, I used my newly acquired skills to check Facebook Mobile right then.  There was a message from one of my former teachers (Hi, Pete!) –

“ESL position at Chatham College in PG today.  You would be perfect for it.”

When I was sure the boys were sleeping, I mentioned it to my husband.  I figured that it would be the beginning of our usual sadness laced dialogue about how we should move back to the ‘Burgh but really couldn’t do it.  Instead, the new script had just one line:

“I think you should apply for it!” 

And so started our  journey back to Pittsburgh.

But Why Would Y’inz Leave? – West End Girl

I was never one of those people who planned to leave his or her hometown as soon as possible. On the contrary, I remember the day I was forced to accept the fact that I would have to leave Pittsburgh. It was one of the worst days of my life.

It was in the late spring of 1994 and I was substituting at my Alma Mater, Langley High School, during the day and working at Kaufmann’s at South Hills Village at night. I had just completed my student teaching in the fall at another urban (although not in PPS) Pittsburgh Area high school and graduated from IUP in January. My GPA was just average but I earned an A++ for my student teaching and had glowing letters of recommendation. Life was good.

One day, I got a message from my cooperating teacher saying that he decided to retire and had recommended me to replace him. I couldn’t contain my excitement at the prospect of getting a real life so soon after graduation. My friends would all be jealous!!!! It was common knowledge that teaching jobs were worth their weight in gold in PA so I couldn’t believe my good fortune. I followed his directions to the letter, applied for the job and started planning to decorating my first real apartment in the best IKEA had to offer.

A few weeks passed and I didn’t hear anything. I called the school office to check and make sure my application and resume were received. “The position has been filled,” was the answer I received to my inquiry. What? There must have been a horrible mistake because the retiree recommended me – I mean who would better know who could do the job, right?

Ah, the folly of youth. Apparently, there were several people who knew better (the interview team) and apparently they were looking for a teacher with experience. Which I didn’t have. Because I needed to get a job to get experience. A job which I couldn’t get because I didn’t have experience. I hate Catch-22’s. Even the term Catch 22 is annoying. It didn’t even help that I was a woman in a field of education generally dominated by men. The Department Chair even went to bat for me. He insisted that the interview team should meet with me as a courtesy, just so I could get some interview experience.

Instead of cool, Swedish mod furniture, I started decorating my bedroom with rejection letters from school districts. It was pathetic. The only consolation I had in this debacle was that there was a regular substitute at that school who had been subed there virtually every day for 6 years. He was 40 and he couldn’t get an interview either. I saw it as an omen.

I had to make the impossible choice: Stay in Pittsburgh and try to pay my bills while paying my dues substituting and working odd jobs or take a chance on finding a teaching job somewhere else and see if teaching was really what I should be doing with my life.

Truly, I had no choice but to leave.

West End Girl

There's No Place Like Pittsburgh!

Installment 1 – The decision is made.

Correct me if I’m wrong here but as I remember it, all Judy Garland had to do to get back to Kansas was the following:

1. look thoroughly annoyed from having wasted so much time and learned nothing new

2. click heels of the appropriate, sparkly footwear three times

3. repeat catchy mantra

And then she woke up and everything was back to normal. Is it me? Does this stuff only work for natives of Kansas or orphans who inexplicably live with an Aunt and Uncle? Is it only for those who have new friends with missing vital organs or questionable character traits?

What about a West End Girl who just wants to come back to her hometown of Pittsburgh?

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