In one of my last after-school teaching jobs, I was in the classroom and had just assigned some in-class work. So, as the class was working on the task, there was silence in the room.

The walls, however, were thin and I could hear parts of a conversation from next door.

The student, E****, was saying something to one of the head teachers. I believe E**** might have said something like, “I want K.P. to teach me.” The voice was soft, but those were the words I could make out. The head teacher then responded, in a louder voice, “You don’t want K.P. to teach you?”

I heard that part clearly because the walls were thin and the head teacher’s voice carried through. So, the student E**** might have said that and I missed the “don’t” when she said it. But next thing I knew, I could hear the head teacher getting on the phone to speak in Korean to the boss.

Soon enough, I was no longer teaching the student E****. I had always assumed it was because management wanted to spread hours around and make other instructors feel good by giving them classes. But later on, I noticed it was awkward when E**** needed extra classes for last-minute essays/projects and I was asked to help out.

For me, the irony was that I wasn’t good enough to teach her, but now I was suddenly good enough as a last-minute backup because others weren’t available to cater to her last-minute projects?

Anyway, over the years I have heard students — maybe they were joking, or maybe not — telling me to my face that they’d like to get me in trouble so I wouldn’t teach them, because they wanted to get out of those classes and wanted no classes, period. Some instructors would view that as disrespectful. Normally, I played along.

I would say something like, “Well, if you get me fired, don’t worry — all I have to do is make a few phone calls, and there’ll be people lining up to hire me.” I said that every time when I played along to their comment about getting me fired. Those students would laugh and think I was bluffing or exaggerating.

Well, by December 2024, I was still working a regular full-time job, but I was no longer getting any meaningful hours in after-school classes.

For a while, I didn’t do anything. One day in December, I looked on Indeed and found one teaching job that interested me. I emailed the contact person — whom I do not know, and I had no connections — and attached my resume expressing my interest in the position.

Within 24 hours, I had received an email back asking me for an interview in two days. (Actually, to be more exact, it was just after 25 hours. I emailed at 9:37 a.m. on a Monday morning, and I got a response the following day at 10:45 a.m.)

It was one shot, and one goal.

It really didn’t surprise me. My resume speaks for itself. My credentials speak for themselves. My background, my experience, and my passion speak for themselves.

After the interview, I was immediately given a trial class scheduled three days later. I did the trial class, and within an hour I was offered full hours for the rest of the week. I did regular hours for two weeks, filled out my hours and submitted them (on the final day of the second week), and I was paid (by e-transfer) the following day (ie. the day after submitting the hours). I was given more hours for after-school classes in January and onwards.

I’m not sure if there was ever any doubt. Basically, it was one shot, and one goal. I applied to that one place on that one day, and I got the job.

My resume speaks for itself. My experience as well. … I’m not sure why any serious student would ever say something like “I don’t want K.P. to teach me” the way that E**** or the other earlier students who wanted to get me into trouble did.

I was never dead, but I’d like to say I’m back from the dead, without really even trying in the sense of sending out hundreds of applications.

It was one shot, and one goal.