blogging about stuff

I see teaching as a means not to just teach facts to children, but also a way to influence how they perceive, absorb, and shape the world around them. I believe that teachers will make the future landscape of our country a better one. And it is my hope that by becoming a teacher I can in the end better my community. These are the reasons that I have chosen teaching as a profession.

I, like some others, did not graduate from college and head directly into the teaching profession. I have had several jobs, some I loved and some that just let me live. My community has always been important to me. I think that it is because my family always had the knack for moving at the moment I was finally feeling settled. We moved from South Africa when I was four. I was about to head into the school system and we moved to New Hampshire. We moved to California right when I was to start eighth grade. It was a very hard transition. I then decided to go to college in Portland, Oregon, away from family and friends. Then I decided to move back to California right after graduation.

I moved back home and took care of my grandmother for six months. It was safe and I did not have to worry about getting a job. I was with my mother and grandmother and that was home, but it always had a feeling of only being home because of them and not because it was were my heart felt at peace. I longed for a community that I could be a part of and my dear friend reminded me that Portland had always been the place that I had loved since the moment I stepped foot into the city. After two years of living in California, feeling detached from everything around me I decided to move back to Portland, to be home with my heart and soul.

I did not have a job, a boyfriend but I did have love. I had the love of the city around me, the love for my dear friends and the school that made me the adult I had turned into. I had thought at that time to enter graduate school and then decided I was not ready. I was scared to take the leap. Instead I got a job. Another Lewis and Clark grad had just started his own company. It was a leap of faith to work for him. The sales pitch he gave me was “I really can’t pay you much and there are no benefits but you can bring your dog to work and it will be fun.” Well it was. I ended up seeing Philippines and being a part of a company that did good things for the poor in a far away community. During that time I met my husband. He had worked for a friend of mine and she thought we were meant for each other. Funny how friends are so often right about that sort of thing. We got married, bought a house and settled in with one another. I had the stability to leave the job and do something else with my life. Grad school loomed and I thought, oh no not yet, I am not yet ready. Off I went to work at the barn that I rode at. I was surrounded by wonderful people, I was able to take my riding to a new level and to learn all about horses. I was thrilled to be a part of this community and I loved being with everyone that made up the barn. My horse was hurt over a year ago. I, along with countless others, tried to nurse her back to health but not much was working. She was fine out in the field but she could no longer jump and that is how we compete. I decided to turn her out to pasture and off she went to live at my friends in Goldendale, WA.

My life had hit a road block. Was I to keep riding, was I to keep working at the barn, was it time to take the leap into the field of teaching? I had finally settled into a place that was home for me. I had everything. The family, the community and the trust that it was going to be this way forever for me. I had grown up. It had taken awhile and this was not a bad thing. I had become extremely comfortable in my own skin and for me this was a major point in enabling me to take the leap and apply to grad school.

I took the risk. I put myself and my dreams out there. It turned out to be one of the best things I have done in my life. I want to impart on students that it is okay to take risks. Being confident in ones self is an important lesson that all children need to learn. Instilling confidence in them will help them be able to take on the challenge of learning. Being a teacher is a special task that takes an amazing person to do. I think we have all begun to see how true that is and how lucky we are to be surrounded by twenty two amazing people. Lewis and Clark has established a community of learning that allows us to thrive and I am thrilled to be a part of it.