In short, it went fine.
I was asked to speak with a late in the day elective class (akin to when Mason had robotics in his 510 slot.) This elective was GLBTQIA+ interest.
First of all I knew about this school is that my student who I will call C.N. (to protect the innocent) worked at a middle school. In amongst all of our correspondence leading up to this event, he gave me a map of where to park, which was great, but I kind of failed to notice the name of the school? I had the address. So, at any rate, I plugged the address into my GPS and off I went. You know how your GPS just goes doood-le-oot when you reach your destination and, because you are travelling anywhere from 30 to 60 miles an hour and you often can't just screech to a halt in the middle of the street, you're not sure if the GPS is being predictive, super accurate, or you already passed your destination at high speeds? Well, when the thing makes its noise I see an obvious school ahead and so I go there. It's Holy Angels and as I pulled into the parking lot, I think to myself, "YOU'D THINK THAT SUPER-GAY C.N. WOULD HAVE MENTIONED WORKING AT A CATHOLIC HIGH... wait a minute, this is a high school."
I'm, of course, arriving at 3 pm, when everyone is picking up and school buses are everywhere and I briefly wonder if I'm going to have to park here and start walking back the way I came to try to find the middle school, but then I finally break free of the traffic tangle and do a little reconnoitering.
I realize that the reason I nearly blew past the school is because it's kind of a store front. Like, it is literally across the street from a hilariously named Asian market, "Rong Market." (I almost took a picture of Rong Market, but didn't.) I double check the map, finally, and confirm that this is it.
Once I'm parked, I follow the signs to the main office. I ask after my student. A very surly (almost stereotypical) school secretary informs me that Mr. N does not work on Tuesdays. He is not in the building, sorry.
Sorry? Like, that's it? I'm supposed to leave? I give her a look, she looks back, and I'm like, "Uh, let me check my emails, because I'm fairly certain today is the day I'm meant to be visiting his class." She continues to give me the "fine, but don't corrupt our children while you stand there" vibe, and I'm kind of starting to panic that maybe this ISN'T THE RIGHT SCHOOL? Maybe I am supposed to be over with the Catholic Academy???
Now, you're probably wondering why I haven't texted C.N.. I have! I've emailed him and texted, but he had sent me a note earlier saying that his phone was acting up and so maybe he'd be hard to reach???
At this point, sweat is breaking out on my brow. I am two seconds from texting a frantic apology saying, "I can't find you. Giving up," when C.N. comes around the corner and sees me. So, that's a huge relief. I asked him later why the secretary was so convinced he wasn't here, and he told me that he actually sent someone to her some time ago to explain not only would someone be asking for him, but where to direct me. So, apparently, the secretary didn't like to look of me. It might have been the giant MN queer shirt I had on? I don't know.
But, so this is not off to a particularly auspicious start.
In the room, I realize how grateful I am that I have prepared nothing. It's chaos. As I said, it's an elective, so who knows why they picked the GLBTQiA+ pride class. They might be gay? Or they might just be like, "Sounds fun" or "this is probably easy."
But, the teachers seem to have been expecting something more certain from me. There are three teachers that "run" this class, I'm really only introduced to one other, but it hardly matters because it was in one ear and out the other. She wants to know if I need a powerpoint set up. I actually laugh. And, then I'm like, "No, no, I didn't prepare anything specific."
To be fair to me, C.N. made it sound fairly casual, "Q&A and maybe a writing prompt?" and I was like, sounds great.
But, I mean I also very intentionally did not sweat this. It's an hour. It's not my class. I'm the guest. They had other things they were doing in the classroom, and so I just sort of told them the story of my writing career, talked about what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth and there was no queer representation, told them the story of Theodor Sturgeon's "World Well Lost" (which they actually seemed pretty rapt, during) and then the teachers prompted them to think of media that they consume that have representations that are important to them. I took the opportunity to find out if the sense I got from my Loft middle schoolers was correct: are manga and anime on the downswing in terms of popularity?
Turns out yes. Although, when I mentioned Yuri on Ice, one of the kids was like "figure skating is dumb" and I literally was like "HA! YOU KNOW IT." (So, you know, I operate on a middle school mindset. I'm sure that impressed the fuck out of Craig.)
I mean, was it chaotic? Probably, yes, a little.
Was it also JUST FINE? Yes, absolutely.
I did, at least, discover something really fascinating. Kids these days don't feel the same way about books as I used to. When I was growing up, books were sort of precious...? Like, if you wanted to read fiction you had to spend hard earned money on a paperback or you had to hike/bike to the library and check out a book. I was always kind of impressed with books because of this? Like, where did they come from? Who was this mythical author?
Kids these days get so much media for free on the internet that published books just aren't that precious. They were really baffled about why it was special that I was a published author. Like, books are in the library, but life is on the internet, so, huh?
FASCINATING.
Honestly, had I known to expect that, I would have made a power presentation about the life cycle of a book. What authors ARE in this process, how books get edited, made, distributed, etc.
BUT IT NEVER OCURRED TO ME that this wouldn't be at least.... I don't want to say self-evident, because I certainly never considered how books got made until I was starting to get interested in being an author. But, I think it never occurred to me how diluted the idea of this process has becomes because the lines between the production of the free versions (like fan fic) and the pay-for versions (like self-published to trad published books) have become really opaque to a lot of grown-ups, not to mention kids.
So, if there is a next time in some fashion, I will come much more prepared to sell people not so much on the idea of ME, as the idea of trad published books.
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