Unfortunately, I can’t actually produce money with my magical capabilities. If I could, I probably wouldn’t be in school right now and would probably be travelling the world doing fun and great things.
But on Sunday, I was paid for my magic.
To teach it, specifically.
On Saturday, October 28th, I met a couple at the Scissors Hair Salon, and I offered to perform a trick for them out of sheer boredom while waiting for my friends to finish getting their hair cut.
The father, who turned out to be a retired UPenn Wharton Professor, was extremely impressed with my confidence to approach strangers and expressed great appreciation for my positive presence I had. In the matter of a few minutes, he was already discussing to potentially having me teach his special needs son magic. His child is partially deaf and has obvious social troubles, so the father believed I could maybe teach him the side of confidence I had learned through magic.
I suppose even though I didn’t get a haircut that day and only waited for my friends, I think I was still the winner that day.
So the next day, on Sunday 29th, I was picked up outside my dorm and taken to their house and spent 30 minutes with the son.
Working with attention deficit children is hard.
I already had great respect for teachers of all fields and ages, but I now understand a bit better what my elementary school teachers must have had to go through–unpleasant days, to say the least.
That was my first experience being paid to teach magic, and I would be lying if I didn’t say it felt freaking amazing to get paid to do what I love.
Hopefully, I’ll get to do what I love for the rest of my life.
Side Note: The father also generously invited me to attend a leadership lecture by Stuart Weitzman at UPenn next Monday, November 6th. I will probably do my best to attend, and will most definitely write about it if I do.
“I decided to pursue performing arts because of its job stability and high income”
Blog of Jeff Wang 