Chi-Town Gave Me a Not-So-Shy Curse

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Chi-Town Gave Me a Not-So-Shy Curse

I've never been the type of person who falls into superstitious beliefs, and that's saying a lot, since I'm a former baseball player. From as long as I can remember, I demanded proof. I wanted something to make logical sense. One superstition prevalent from a worldwide standpoint are curses.

A curse is defined as an entity which causes a punishment among a particular person, or group of people. It's often associated with "bad luck", and other annoyances through our days. Here in the United States, we have our share of curses, with the most famous ones being in baseball.

With this being said, a misfortune with a recent job of mine has made me consider the idea of curses. After you read this take, keep in mind I still don't technically believe in curses-But it's getting to the point where, perhaps, I should.

A large city in the state of Illinois(In the United States of America) known as Chicago has a grudge against me, despite the fact I never met ol' Chicago in my entire life. Why do I say as such? Because for whatever reason, anytime I want to visit the windy city, a road block occurs. I can't visit this city to save my life. They say "three times is a charm", but this is a five time deal-Almost two charms!

So, what is it? Well, you're about to read an odd, yet, true story of every time I've almost visited Chicago, Illinois.

First Time: The summer of 1994.

Story: I was only three years old at the time, so I have no memory of this whatsoever, so I have to go with what my parents' told me.

Apparently, my dad had an interesting idea. Instead of going to Florida for summer vacation like every other person living in Ohio, why not take a Chicago, Illinois trip? Surprisingly, my mom agreed with him without arguing(Which is very rare, trust me), and since she had been to Chicago before, she was excited. At the time, I only had one sister, and she was only a year old, so it wouldn't have been a huge deal if we all just drove out there. What was the problem?

Allegedly, they couldn't find a reasonable hotel at all. So, we had to book an expensive hotel. However, there was one big problem-The hotel worker accidentally gave us the absolute most expensive room, and already booked us for a week. Needless to say, this put my parents' bank account in a deficit. After a full week of cat-mouse, my parents' finally got their money back-But it was now too late to plan a vacation. So, they had a stay-cation week that summer.

Second Time: In 2008, during my junior year of high school

Story: Fast forward 14 years later, and I'm a high school junior. I was part of a Teacher Academy program, which is basically a mock program for students who hope to become teachers(You'll find out later on in this take how this comes into play).

The way the program worked is as follows: In your junior year, it was all theory based, but by the time you were a senior, you did more hands on actions, and during February of your senior year, you went to the Future Educators of America. There was a different location in the country picked each year, and it so happened to be in 2008, it was the windy city.

The way that year worked, was my Teacher Academy teacher had our junior class vote for someone to go to Chicago with the seniors. I didn't vote for myself(I voted for the hottest girl in our class), but to my shock-I was voted to go to Chicago! And the best part is, I could go for free, as long as I brought money for food purposes....except there was a problem.

About a week before I was supposed to go, my teacher gave me bad news. She said the school district wasn't able to pay for me, due to the seniors going, and I had to come up with the money for the cost of the trip-Which included hotel cost, and everything. They told me it was roughly $1,000, and my parents(and I) didn't have that kind of money. My teacher apologized a thousand times, and to this day, she feels guilty about it.

Third Time: During my first year in college, in 2010.

Story: Ah, it's college time! A time for freedom, which includes...lots of homework, and stress. But at Miami University in Ohio(The college I attended), there were quite a few students on the Oxford, Ohio campus who lived in Chicago when they weren't in school. Even though I attended one of the branch campuses(In Hamilton, Ohio), I did know some people from Chi-Town who would attend classes where I was at.

This time, I met a girl, and I liked her. I could write a separate article about my misfortune with the female gender, but I'll save that for another day. It just so happens to be close to spring break, and she was going back to Chicago to visit her family. At the time, I was trying to warm up to this girl, and possibly hookup with her, but unfortunately, misfortune emerges again.

At first, she told me I could come with her to Chicago, and meet her family. However, shortly before break, I find out she didn't want me to come with her. Why?

Because she met another guy, and had suddenly started seeing him.

Fourth Time: During my fifth year in college, during winter break of 2013-2014.

Story: It's time for another sad college post, but when you have a college career which was way too long for basically no reason, you have sad colleges posts.

During my fifth year of college(Which was basically my junior year, due to the way my absurd college career went), we were offered a unique opportunity over winter break. Anyone with a cumulative grade point average(GPA) of 3.5, or higher was offered a free trip to Chicago to combine our education classes with the University of Chicago's classes. Of course, you could still go on the trip if you had lower than a 3.5 GPA as long as you paid the pocket change of over $3,000.

At this point, you have already predicted what happened, so you don't need to bother reading. My GPA wasn't quite good enough for 'yer free tip. It was a 3.4, and very close to being a 3.5...but since Chicago hates me, I wasn't too surprised.

After this time, I was almost convinced I would never get to this city, and started up this whole curse talk. But then 2017 happened....

Fifth Time: During my time as an eighth grade teacher in 2017.

Story: Back on July Eighth of this year(2017), I accepted a job offer as an eighth grade teacher at a local Catholic school. Since I am a Catholic, had attended schools in the same Archdiocese as a student, and since it wasn't one of those evil, inner-city public schools, I was thrilled. On top of this, my principal told me the eighth grade class takes an annual trip in May to-you guessed it-The land of the obnoxious Italians.

Long story short, the job was a total bust disappointment. I liked my students, and the teachers were great, but my principal was overwhelming to say the least. I was constantly stressed over her unnecessary emails. On top of that, the helicopter parents proved to me why we have such a participation trophy generation of young people. According to these parents, their kids can do no wrong, and it was my fault they didn't learn anything(And I guess my fault they didn't learn from their kindergarten through seventh grade years either). Since parents pay the tuition, and rich parents hold more weight than any other parent, my job was in jeopardy.

My principal basically told me I was losing my job. She said she would observe me, and if either observation wasn't "spectacular", I was losing my job by December. She also told me if I resign, I can receive pay until January, 2018, and she would be a good reference for me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out she wasn't going to give me a good observation no matter what.

So, since I was going to be terminated anyway, I resigned, ultimately costing me a trip to Chicago.

Final Conclusions

1. Curses are real, and the crazy Italians of Chicago, Illinois cursed me the first day I was born.

2. Curses aren't real, and it's all pure coincidence.

3. I've now got this silly curse stuck in my head, so I inadvertently find a way to avoid going to Chicago, whether I realize I'm doing it, or not.

Chi-Town Gave Me a Not-So-Shy Curse

Chi-Town Gave Me a Not-So-Shy Curse
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