School

Sigh...the first day of school. A day that usually has some small whiff of autumn and pencil shavings associated with it. I always double check that I remembered to put on deoderant, and wonder again at the amazing surrealness that I am now teaching school. Ever since I was three I wanted to be a teacher. I only deviated once--mom freaked out, but I think it is necessary to deliberately make the decision to do something instead of leaving to life's defaults. I am in awe of the courage of my students. Suddenly they are real people instead of names on a list. A mentor of mine always warned that I was too involved, too invested in teaching and my students. He admired this but warned of burn out in five years.

Well, here I am in year six. Of course all non-essential organs have been removed, except the obvious appendix-- and I am currently fighting a wicked battle with my kidneys.

I have a blog for my students. It is an attempt to create more a community and a willingness to trust each other with our writing. On the first day there are just some people that I see and I just know that they are going to be a joy to be around--to learn with. Others I wonder about and I usually am wrong in my guesses, but those few. Well I just know. One of them left an obligatory comment on the welcome message and of course I was able to discover that she just started a blog but has had a webpage forever it looks like. Well, she blogged about class. This girl is a natural born writer. You can be taught but this lady has natural born elegance in her words. She wrote about me, I was half afraid--but it was good and for once I didn't think about my kidneys and my weird office situation and about paychecks getting to the right place. I can't imagine doing anything else and the gracious Lord has allowed me to have miracles in my life to make it possible. I love my job. Even when I am not happy with it, I love it.

Just had to say that. I think I might do some of my pages on here, then you will all see how truly odd I am. But you will know me better. love to all. viva la kidney.