My whole life, I have loved to read. I love getting lost in a story, and following along as it comes to life. When I close each book I read after finishing the last chapter, I'm always met with this sort of empty feeling. Until of course I remember that I have at least three more books stashed underneath my bed waiting to be read. Thus, a new chapter and a new story quickly take shape.
This feels like a metaphor of sorts for what the last couple of weeks have been like. Each chapter of my life has been amazing in it's own unique way, but this particular chapter, these past three years teaching at two amazing schools and getting to know, teach, and love a total of 82 students, will always be near and dear to my heart. Thus, it has been a particularly difficult chapter to close.
For starters, this chapter gave me the chance to start my career by living out my lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. It has been so much more amazing, hard, sweet, challenging, demanding, wonderful, and beautiful than I ever could have imagined. The 57 sixth graders and 25 fourth graders that I've had the privilege to teach taught me so much more than I ever could have taught them. They taught me to not take everything so seriously, to celebrate even the smallest successes, and that it's really truly okay to be imperfect. And best of all, they showed me that my heart was capable of love in a way I had never before experienced. Teaching them, loving them, laughing with them, and building relationships with them has changed my life forever and made me a better person.
Of course, I couldn't have made it through these first three years of teaching on my own. I had the privilege of working with some truly remarkable faculty members and administrators who I grew to know and love not just as co-workers, but as friends and confidants. These amazing mentors guided me, encouraged me, gave me advice, and walked me through problem after problem, and lesson after lesson. Their classrooms and offices were truly safe spaces where I could break down crying, laugh until my sides hurt, and share my triumphs big or small and inside or outside of the classroom. Their words and actions inspired me, taught me, and made me want to live up to their examples and be more like them.
There's this quote that goes something like, "They may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel." As I head off on my next adventure, I will remember how I felt hugging each one of my students on the last day of school as they walked out my classroom door for the last time. I will remember how it felt to finally realize that I didn't need to be perfect to succeed at this job. It took a long, long time for me to believe in myself and have confidence that I could be a good teacher. For awhile it seemed like every mistake, every misstep, every day that I was less patient than I should have been would add up to define me and hold me back. But my amazing heroes: my family and friends, students, parents, faculty members, and mentors never, ever gave up on me. And they wouldn't let me give up on me either. They gave me the greatest gift of all: a blossomed confidence and belief in myself that I get to take with me as I start this new chapter in a new school and a new state. I will always, always remember how they made me feel: like a daughter of God with unlimited potential and the ability to do good and truly make a difference. And I am forever grateful.
This feels like a metaphor of sorts for what the last couple of weeks have been like. Each chapter of my life has been amazing in it's own unique way, but this particular chapter, these past three years teaching at two amazing schools and getting to know, teach, and love a total of 82 students, will always be near and dear to my heart. Thus, it has been a particularly difficult chapter to close.
For starters, this chapter gave me the chance to start my career by living out my lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. It has been so much more amazing, hard, sweet, challenging, demanding, wonderful, and beautiful than I ever could have imagined. The 57 sixth graders and 25 fourth graders that I've had the privilege to teach taught me so much more than I ever could have taught them. They taught me to not take everything so seriously, to celebrate even the smallest successes, and that it's really truly okay to be imperfect. And best of all, they showed me that my heart was capable of love in a way I had never before experienced. Teaching them, loving them, laughing with them, and building relationships with them has changed my life forever and made me a better person.
Of course, I couldn't have made it through these first three years of teaching on my own. I had the privilege of working with some truly remarkable faculty members and administrators who I grew to know and love not just as co-workers, but as friends and confidants. These amazing mentors guided me, encouraged me, gave me advice, and walked me through problem after problem, and lesson after lesson. Their classrooms and offices were truly safe spaces where I could break down crying, laugh until my sides hurt, and share my triumphs big or small and inside or outside of the classroom. Their words and actions inspired me, taught me, and made me want to live up to their examples and be more like them.
There's this quote that goes something like, "They may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel." As I head off on my next adventure, I will remember how I felt hugging each one of my students on the last day of school as they walked out my classroom door for the last time. I will remember how it felt to finally realize that I didn't need to be perfect to succeed at this job. It took a long, long time for me to believe in myself and have confidence that I could be a good teacher. For awhile it seemed like every mistake, every misstep, every day that I was less patient than I should have been would add up to define me and hold me back. But my amazing heroes: my family and friends, students, parents, faculty members, and mentors never, ever gave up on me. And they wouldn't let me give up on me either. They gave me the greatest gift of all: a blossomed confidence and belief in myself that I get to take with me as I start this new chapter in a new school and a new state. I will always, always remember how they made me feel: like a daughter of God with unlimited potential and the ability to do good and truly make a difference. And I am forever grateful.
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