My Accidental Part Time Gig
Many years ago, I first read about how weddings are expensive and I thought that it must be exaggerated. That or most of them were not able to manage their funds well. Little did I know how wrong I was.
A fresh graduate's salary amounts to nothing much even ten years ago. However, I still had to find a way to get the funds needed for my wedding. That was when an opportunity came a-knocking.
Can You Teach My Children Swimming?
I was at my desk when a colleague came over. I had just started work at a college and somehow my records were leaked. That was when that colleague of mine found out that I was a competitive swimmer. She came over and asked if I could teach her children swimming.
I thought why not? I needed the money and besides, it was not as if I have found any other source of income. Thus, I started my stint as a part-time swim instructor. It was an easy one hour class of teaching children how to swim properly. I could not imagine what would come next from this.
The Classes Grew Accidentally Too
I do not promote my classes on any platform. However, I started getting weird stares from parents around the pool. At first, I thought it was my voice. I started lowering my voice and the stares continued. I started feeling self-conscious but carried on my class.
At the end of my class, one of the parents walked up to me and asked if I was a swimming coach. Little did I know that many parents who frequented the pool were looking for a swimming coach as well. Thus, they were observing to see if I was alright with kids. They claimed that the previous coach they had love throwing the kids into the swimming pool.
This created a sense of fear among some of the children and since I never once did that, they thought that I would make a perfect fit. I agreed and word spread rather quickly. More and more parents started enquiring about my classes and I was thankful for the opportunity.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges that come with opportunity is expectations. Apparently, one parent went around talking about how I have helped her child overcome hydrophobia. Honestly, I thought I was just lucky and that led to many placing a rather high expectation on me. That being said, it was a good problem to have and nothing beats seeing a child learning how to overcome their own fear of water.
The other challenge was that I had to sacrifice my dashing good looks for my wedding. I'm joking, but I did get rather tanned in the weirdest places. I wear a full suit during my lessons and so my hands and face became rather dark. Colleagues of mine started calling me a reverse Mickey Mouse because it was as if I was wearing gloves.
Conclusion
It has been a few years now since that interesting part-time gig and I am thankful for that learning experience. I think one of the best lessons learned from this experience is that word of mouth is often a more powerful form of advertising.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://alvinauh.vornix.blog/2018/10/03/my-accidental-part-time-gig/
so ure not only a good MC but also a good swimmer... Now, I know
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I bet reverse Mickey Mouse is a popular swimming coach, as it is not easy to get one who understand the children so well. :)
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