Hang in There

It’s time to be honest background friends.  Life is hard.  If you’ve read my “about” tab, you know that the whole reason I became interested in being an extra is due to the fact that I left my teaching career over a very upsetting incident.  I don’t want to dwell on that incident, because it has totally taken over my life for the past year, but I will just say that I was accused of throwing something at a student.  She, with her parent, pressed charges and I spent a long ten months going through the court process.  And I was found not guilty.  Want to know why?  Because I didn’t do it, that’s why.

My whole point in bringing this up today is that life can sometimes seem to present insurmountable odds.  Over the past year I have lost my job and had my name ruined with the accusation, my husband had been out of work, and our most valued asset, our home, is not selling.  We’ve had it on the market for slightly over a year and we’re still here.  We really want to take the proceeds from the sale of our home and start again somewhere new.  But we can’t do that until we sell.  And not only that, our home has dropped so much in value that we will lose a ton of money.  These are all first world problems, I know.  Not the worst I’ve had in life but definitely not the best.

So why am I writing about this and what does it have to do with my life in the background?  In truth, being an extra has been my saving grace this past year.  It has given me something to look forward to and get excited about; because there is not a lot of excitement for me lately.  And I was starting to be pretty down about everything.  I’ve started looking for a teaching job and I’m finding it difficult.  Even though I was found not guilty, the accusation is out there and I think employers are leery.  I am at a point

where I think my teaching career might be over for good.  If you know me, you know that teaching is my calling.  I am really, really good at it.  I love what I do (or did) and love my students.  So, all in all, I was feeling pretty down.

Then, I prayed and asked God to give me something to hang on to.  I told Him that I will continue to do my best and trust that He has a plan, but that I could really use something to help out while I wait to discover what that plan might be.  With no extra jobs lined up, I was beginning to feel a little dejected.  I didn’t have any bookings. My house won’t sell.  I am finding that securing a teaching job is going to be much more difficult than I had thought.  So I just prayed.

And guess what, within one minute of that prayer I received a call from Joan Philo Casting with a booking for Chicago Med.  I thought, “Wow! That was awful quick.  Thank you Lord.”  I even told my husband that the timing was just perfect because I wanted something and I got something.  Maybe it wasn’t a teaching job, a buyer for my home, or a literary agent to represent my novel, but it was something.

Following that, about two hours later, I received an email from Extraordinary Casting that stated, “Congrats! You were selected by Production and Director for one of just a few Civilian extras on…”  I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say what the production is so I won’t but it’s not anything I have heard of.  It is either a new show or a movie but they did say a lot of big names have signed on to this one.  And it is a two day job!  And I have never worked with Extraordinary Casting before.  My mom has and I have met a lot of other extras that have, but not me.  So then I was thinking how cool it was that I received one thing but now two.  How lucky am I?

But that’s not the end!  I woke up this morning and looked at my Twitter feed and saw this man’s prayer.  Click here to see it.  Uhmm, could that have been more perfect for where I am right now?  Wow!  Someone is talking to me and telling me to hang in there.  It’s not quite time but it will be.  You can do this and God is with you every step of the way.

Keeping the faith that God has a plan for you can be difficult sometimes.  But hang in there friends because if you do your part, that plan is already written for you.  For now, I will keep doing my part.  I will continue to query ten literary agents a day for my book, I Gave You a Boy.  I will keep up with my little free lance writing gig for Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos.  I will try my hardest to find the school that needs me most.  And I’ll be out there looking for background work.

Sorry for the long post.  It was just one of those things I needed to put out there in the world.  I hope you’re hanging in there with whatever issues you might be having.  Me, I’ll be hanging out in the background.