a new career, perhaps

My friend Corinne and I have decided to get our real estate sales licenses.  In New York, that requires the completion of 75-hour qualifying course, and then passing an exam.  It’s been over thirty years since I’ve taken a test.  I hope I remember how to study.

The 75-hour course translates into twenty, 3-4 hour classes, taken in any order, at any time, and without making a reservation.  The course must be completed within three months. 

Today is day one.  We plan on taking two, three-hour classes: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Around 8:30 I arrive at a non-descript office building in the busy garment district. 

The sign for the education center sits above one for holistic medicine.  Our money is not being wasted on fancy signage.

I am pleasantly surprised when I get to the classroom and see it filled with 40 or so normal-looking people.  The instructor speaks well and clearly; he delivers the material in a concise manner, and his anecdotes are entertaining and relatable. 

This is nothing like my last classroom experience a few years ago.  Then, I was training to be a census taker, or enumerator as we were called.  The instructors there addressed the class as if we were morons.  I remember spending 15-minutes discussing what to do if we had to interview a family living in a trailer.  I mean really.  How many trailer-living-people have you seen living in Manhattan? 

Today’s class, about liens, easements and leases, is actually pretty interesting.  But it still requires three hours of sitting, listening and taking notes. At the end, Corinne and I decide that two classes in one day are too much.  We bail on the afternoon class.

But we will try and take a minimum of three classes per week.  The sooner we finish the sooner we can take the test and maybe, hopefully, the sooner we can earn some money.  Now that would be nice.