GAAAAAAH!
I'm sure some people, perhaps even most, get to gradually work their way into things. For some reason, I've never been one of them. Instead, I'm the person who is backstage working on a minor prop when someone walks up and shoves me through the curtain to do an unrehearsed monologue. (Usually it's with a whispered, "Good luck! I'm sure you'll do fine.") It was that way when I became a sound guy (they didn't even show me the board first! They just told me where it was and that I'd figure it out). It was that way in drama productions (I had my first major part in a school play when a guy just wasn't working out -- he'd had months to learn it; I had a week). It was that way in wedding photography (hehe... I still have a twitch, but they loved my work).
Naturally, it's been like that with diving, too, so it wasn't too surprising when the assistant for the class last night couldn't make due to being rather sick. I got the five minute backgrounder and had to wing it. I dropped a few balls, but I apparently did a passable juggling act for an uninitiated first timer. If only that was all...
So, I was trying to keep all the required student paperwork in my head while getting BCs and wetsuits for trying on and just trying to keep my head from spinning *too* rapidly, when the instructor (who I hadn't met prior to yesterday evening) asks me where I am in the DM course. I checked the door calendar and noted where we started and what we'd done. Then the fun part. He said I should pick a section to teach the class, although I could refuse if I so chose.
Needless to say, I was a bit blindsided. We haven't even done our in-the-privacy-of-the-DM-class practice presentations yet! I just basically did the deer-in-headlights thing and continued helping students try things on (as my brain curled up in a rather terrified fetal position). It was right about then that the Course Director who runs the shop and who is the lead instructor on our DM class came by. The instructor told him that he'd like me to do a section, if we felt I was capable, and the CD enthusiastically agreed.
Long story short, I chose the NAUI dive tables, as I've helped many students learn them (and they are very well defined -- you know exactly what you need to convey, so it's relatively straightforward to prepare). I have a full two evenings to get my act together. :biggrin:
(On the way to the shop, I stopped by the store and picked up a dozen or so pens, some paper, and such. Sure enough, someone absconded with my first lent pen last night.
)
