Job Memo

 I haven’t had many jobs; I’ve interned in a couple places but that hardly qualifies. The closest thing I’ve had to a job is being a sailing instructor (even then I’m kind of cheating). I usually say I’m a sailing instructor to keep it simple, in truth I never completed my formation (I have about two weeks left). Nevertheless, I believe myself more than qualified to speak about sailing and, seeing as I did teach it for about 3 years (despite not having the status) to speak of how it is taught and how it should be.  

 

Sailing instructor  

 

The path to becoming a sailing instructor is long and tedious and no one I think really sets out on it with a goal in mind. It just eventually manifests almost out of the blue. The path to becoming an official instructor starts off as would any regular hobby but develops in a few major steps:  

 

• hobby  

• obsession  

• formation  

 

Hobby  

 

As I said it starts as a simple hobby, your parents sign you up to a sailing class. Naturally you hate it because you’re five and the water in Brittany isn’t exactly warm (about 50 f). But what else is there to do when you have a house there? Good question, so despite all the protest your mom signs you up again. And, surprise surprise, you still hate it. But this time you fell in the water less, and maybe you caught some speed and that felt nice… but no you still hate it and you must protest.  

 

Yet your mother keeps signing you up week after week, year after year. Soon enough you’re never in the water anymore, you're zooming past everyone else in the class, you’ve made great friends who you find again each summer. But you still hate it… or do you? Funnily, in your stubbornness you’ve failed to realize that behind all that resentment that you must have for your mother (because you’re a teenager now) you actually love sailing, every wave and every wind gust.  

 

It takes you a while to accept it of course, you must be stubborn as all 13 year old children are. But you can’t hide the fact that you’re always the first one ready to go, the happiest when you return (and of course the best sailor in the region). You can’t hide that from your mother, nor can you hide it from yourself. Soon enough you spend all your days there after the lessons, helping out, learning new things, sailing when they need an extra kid, cleaning, fixing, tinkering all day every day of that ever too short summer.  

 

obsession 

 

Ironically, your hobby that you’ve always regarded as a chore, is now what you spend all your days at. It’s now a passion, almost an obsession. It has been for some time, yet you’ve only now realized it. You already spend most of your day in the sailing club anyways so why not make it official, you’re now what’s known as an assistant, or what’s more commonly known as a lackey. 

 

Everything that they don't want to do you will and trust me there is a lot that they don't want to do. Life hasn't really changed but you're now officially part of the club. Do you have to scrub a little harder? sure. Do the instructors bully you all day because you're hanging out with one of the girls? yeah and they'll never stop either. But do you enjoy every minute when you’re with these people? Absolutely. Why? No clue, but it's a place you really feel at home for some odd reason. Besides, you get to sail with insanely talented people all the time. I'm talking about world and national champions daily. 

 

It is during this stage that you'll learn the most by far, everything you know you’re suddenly explained and that prompts so much development in your sailing, but also in your personality. Waking up at 6 every morning and coming home late at night after a 14 hour shift, it may sound like the stuff of nightmares, but it really is a dream. 

 

 

Formation  

 

You’re 16 now, you have your boating license because that’s a totally normal thing for a teenager to have. You tell yourself why not be an instructor at this point. The first thing you need to do is a two week long half practice half theory formation to make sure you have the necessary skills. “If you don't by now go learn how to paddle board” slight paraphrase but that was the idea.  

 

Once that is done, you’re given an official certification which stipulates that you are skilled enough to be an instructor and you are to this day prouder of that than you are of your high school diploma. Now it's time to finish the training but from now to then at least a year will pass. But by this point you’ve been teaching for 3 or 4 years in truth. All that they have left to teach you now is how to set up a lesson and, to be honest, there are harder things.  

 

 

Teach  

 

Teaching is by far the most gratifying experience there is to me, and I know this is not the case for everyone. It doesn’t even have to be sailing, teaching Math and Econ are just as fun to me. It is the idea of passing on something you love that is so precious. It is by no means easy, but that's also what’s interesting. By seeking to explain a concept the best you can you are forced to truly dig at the core of that issue. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old than you do not understand it yourself” - Albert Einstein  

 

By this logic, you must understand everything almost intuitively as some of the people you will be teaching are 6 year olds, and you must be able to indulge them. It does not happen overnight, maybe it won't happen for years, but you start getting to a point in your sailing where teaching becomes second nature, you know why the sail swells like that, why the boat shifts its weight almost as if possessed, why sometimes when the conditions are right you can hear it singing.  

readability : 75

grade level : 7th  

passive sentences : I was unable to get this statistic I'm not sure why