this could be the very moment i'm aware i'm alright. all these places feel like home.

I've spent the past three days not being a teacher. It has, in all honesty, been amazing.

Just me, a good book and a beach. I'm not sure you could ask for much more.

I'm laying here tonight by my open window listening to Snow Patrol, with a Blue Moon and the warmth that your body holds after you've spent three days in the sun and I'm thinking this is really really nice. I love being a teacher. I love TFA and every single ounce of purpose I've found in the educaiton movement, but sometimes it's just nice to sit here with 10-year-old t-shirt on and summer on the horizona and remember what it's like to think past tomorrow's grammar lesson or what I'm doing in soccer practice after that or how many grades I have to enter before I go to bed.

Believe me, all of that started looming in the air the minute I got back to my apartment tonight, but like the warmth my body is trying to hang on to and the freckles that will fade from my eyelids in a day or two, I'm trying to hold on to this feeling. Tomorrow I will start grading papers and I will show up at school for an 11 a.m. soccer practice, but tonight I'm going to finish my beer and my book and think about this summer and sleeping past 6 a.m.

Since I'm feeling all non-teacher like and someone asked, I'll go ahead and slip some non-teacher type info in my education blog for this post.


James Lipton's 10 insights into your soul

1. what is your favorite word?
digress

2. what is your least favorite word?
fuck

3. what turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
creatively - intelligent conversation, that connection with another person keeps me going for hours after
spiritually - humbleness
emotionally - being watched

4. what turns you off?
cruelty, arrogance and smoking

5. what is your favorite curse word?
bastard

6. what sound or noise do you love?
laughfter and sleep

7. what sound or noise do you hate?
anger

8. what profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
writing books, advice columnist, flipping houses (is that really a profession?)

9. what profession would you not like to do?
bee keeper

10. if heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you
arrive at the pearly gates?
My grace is sufficent.

I had two good mornings on the beach by myself waiting for my travel companions to wake up to think about my answers. Funny thing is I've been asked these questions before and I didn't realize until now how much they had changed in just a year. It's funny how you can barely recognize yourself in such a short time. How one road over another can make you a completley different person. One different turn and I'd be in Michigan or New York or Boston. I certainly wouldn't have my window open or even have spring break for that matter. I hope I'd be happy. I am now.