One year ago.
One year ago today I was sitting at my home in San Diego. I was on my couch, with Microsoft Word open showing my course outlines as well as my lesson planning guide. I was double checking my materials, making sure to have an extra activity or two for the first day just in case the day's lesson ran short. After all, as a teacher you can always add lessons and the students will never know it wasn't part of the original plan. The last thing you as a teacher ever want to do is have any kind of down time, especially on the first day.
My night before the first day of school this year is quite different.
In fact, it's nothing at all like like year, nor is it like the previous six years before that. For the first time in my professional life, I am not feverishly looking over lesson plans, organizing class materials, and looking back to my course outlines. For the first time, I won't toss and turn the night before school. For the first time, I won't wake up early, eat my Cheerios and banana, drink my orange juice and arrive to school a good hour before the first students enter my classroom. And, for the first time, I won't begin a new school year by saying "Good morning, my name is Mister LaFauci..."
My night this year involves me sitting on a futon, staying with a person I had not met until ten days ago. It involves me recovering from a day where I woke up, did not eat breakfast, and grabbed a leopard-print umbrella that did not belong to me while heading out into a rainy Boston morning. It also involved me having taken the orange line of the T, having attended a training for ten hours, having taken the T back, having grabbed some Chinese food alone, and having returned to the place where I was staying after spending thirteen hours out and about in Massachusetts' largest city.
So as I sit here, I ask myself this: How do you measure a year in the life?
As I sit here reflecting on this question, it's interesting to me the twists and turns that a person experiences in his or her life. Right now, my Facebook feed is filled with posts and updates of friends at previous schools I worked at. One friend in Winston-Salem is celebrating her birthday and is beginning a new school year as a librarian rather than a classroom teacher. One friend from San Diego just competed in a triathlon in Chicago. One friend from San Diego is beginning her career as an assistant principal. And my friends and colleagues at my previous school in Spring Valley are exactly where I was one year ago: Looking over lesson plans, organizing class materials, and looking back to their class outlines.
Life takes us all in many unexpected directions. For myself, I could never have imagined that within a year I would have changed careers entirely. I could not have imagined that I would have packed up my things and moved to Sacramento to work for a non-profit. I could not have imagined that I would have attended a training in Boston where I would be learning the skills needed to become an activist and organizer. I could not have imagined that I would be out canvassing in the city of Boston one day and then being in a room where we Skype with a former campaign organizer for Barack Obama the next day.
In short, I had no idea that I would end up where I am today.
And yet, I am here and I am happy. Not many people I know enjoy sitting in a room talking and discussing politics. However, here in Boston these past ten days, that has been all we have been doing. Not many people I know would look enjoy canvassing outside a Wholefoods. However, that is what I did and I found the experience invigorating. Not many people I know would enjoy being twenty-nine years old and having to memorize a page-long rap to recite to their peers the following day. However, that is what I did and I made it my mission to excel at this activity.
Going forward, I don't know where I will be one year from now. All I know is that I won't be back in Boston, as this training is for newbies only. What I know is that I will have another opportunity to reflect upon my adventures. I know that many of my friends will being getting ready for the first day of school while others may very well be like myself and have decided to take a different career path. Regardless of where I am next year, I know that I will have stories to tell about where I am and what I hope to continue to accomplish.
Though the story never ends.
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