How Terribly Strange to be 75 - Part Two

Over two months ago, I received an email from the Community College of the Desert regarding a part-time English teaching position. 

After teaching three semesters as an Air Force officer at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I taught a Literature class for Chapman College at Peterson Air Force Base.  Shortly thereafter, I began an 11-year term of part-time teaching English, Literature, Humanities History and Communications classes for Pikes Peak Community College at Fort Carson and Peterson Air Force base, from 1980 through 1991. 

Ever since my forced retirement from IBM in June of 2023 when the company decided to eliminate the Global Sales Manual and Announcement Letter teams, I have been somewhat personally adrift. 

I had started working part-time in high school at the South Gate Rod & Gun Club during my senior semester.  That following summer, my dad got me a job with A.U. Morse & Company in Los Angeles where he was a wallpaper salesman.  I worked in the warehouse, filling orders for wallpaper from several paint and wallpaper stores around Southern California, full time during the summer and school breaks and part-time during my college terms at East L.A. J. C. and Cal State Dominguez Hills.  After college and Marine OCS, I worked as a Security Guard before attending Air Force OTS.

After I was forced to resign from the Air Force in October of 1979, I got a job the following year for Kaman Corporation in Colorado Springs.  (I worked full time during the day and taught night classes for Pikes Peak, week nights and sometimes even on Saturdays.)  Then, when the Kaman division I worked for was sold off to a company that intended to move the business to South Carolina, I attended the student teacher program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus, getting my certification in English Secondary Education teaching in June of 1989.  Finding no public school teaching positions, I took a short-term technical writing job for Capitol Federal Savings in Denver until the bank folded and was sold off in 1990.

I eventually landed a full-time technical writing assignment through a contract company for IBM.  After two shorter assignments, I got the full-time consultant assignment with the IBM sales manual group that lasted from 1992 until 2023.  

My entire life has been taken up with attending school, serving in the military, teaching and working as a technical writer and editor.  I have only very rarely been out of a job.  So, when I was forced to retire, I was a bit lost as to what to do.  (I had bought films and TV shows on disc, music CDs and books over the years in preparation for my eventual retirement, but that never seemed sufficient to tide me over when I suddenly had so much time on my hands.)

This existence of a part-time college teaching job seemed ideal.  I had done it for years.  I had gotten a secondary teaching credential, and I had had military experience as well as being a technical writer for 43 years.  I had published those 10 Rainbow Arc of Fire novels, as well as writing three volumes of poetry from 1968 to the early 1980's. 

I already had my updated resume and my teaching program transcripts to upload to my application.  I went on line to discover that one needed to use an online company called Parchment to get my East LA and Dominguez Hills transcripts.  Unfortunately, after more than a week, I discovered that since my time at each college was so long ago, my request for those transcripts for my AA, BA and MA degrees were put on hold because those transcripts were not in their systems.  The transcripts had to be discovered and copied manually.  It took a few more weeks, but I finally got my East LA transcripts emailed to me and uploaded those to my application.  I had a copy of my UCCS transcripts so they were already uploaded.

Dominguez Hills was proving to be a difficult situation.  Time was now closing in on the Christmas break.  The woman who would have to accomplish the task of finding and sending me my transcripts was already out of the office.  I sent my request to her with all of the information I could find via email after getting her contact info from the college by phone.  But then weeks past with nothing.  I sent another email with the same info in addition to my East LA transcripts attached.  Still nothing.  I called the college again.  I was told to forward the Parchment email, first indicating my transcripts request was on hold and needed manual intervention.  I continued to hear nothing.  At that point we were already past January.  While the College of the Desert gave no date for when the application needed to be complete, I had already submitted mine, minus the Dominguez Hills transcripts in late December.

Back in the late 1980's, I had applied for a full-time community college teaching job at Saddleback CC.  I would eventually learn that my application was rejected, partly because my Dominguez Hills transcripts had not arrived on time for me to be properly considered.  Now it could be happening again.

I finally got a call from Dominguez Hills after I had contacted them again by phone about the fact that now two months had passed and I still had no transcripts for my BA and MA degrees.  The fellow who helped me was most gracious and got right on the situation.  Unfortunately, his return call a couple of days later was to tell me that they found my transcripts but what they had was blurry at the bottom of each page.  They had to work to get those defects corrected.  They would send the transcripts by mail.  I still do not have them.  And, unfortunately, I got an email from the College of the Desert this past Tuesday saying that they could not offer me an interview at this time.  Keep checking their site for future job offerings.

Coming as this additional rejection did, the next day after that nasty meet and greet call regarding the HOA board job, I felt doubly pummeled.  

You somehow imagine at 75, with extensive educational, military and professional training and experience, you might be treated with a bit more deference and civility.  People and agencies would treat you with a bit more respect, civility and professionalism and at least give you the courtesy of an interview.  Many agencies are being told to give preference to veterans.  And that no agency--in California at least--can discriminate based upon age or sexual orientation.      
 
Everyone knows that is nonsense.  People and agencies discriminate all of the time.  They are just very subtle about it.  They typically don't give any reason for why you are rejected.  You just are.  In my case, with my resume, they could easily tell that I had to be in my 70's.  I did mention in my application that I had written these 10 LGBTQ novels because I wanted them to know that I was a creative writer in addition to having extensive technical writing experience.   

Unfortunately, rejections are not easy.  Especially when you believe that you are qualified to do a specific job, in fact perhaps more qualified than those who are already doing that job.  Certainly and likely more qualified than any of those who are also competing for that same job.  So, with the teaching job now out of reach, we shall see if the voters of my community also reject me or not.