Long Time Gone

It's been a very long time since I've posted, and for good reason: My LA Service Adventure ended and really there was no more reason to continue writing about it. Or so I thought.

It's been an interesting year, filled with lots of questions: Why am I here? Where am I going? Who am I going to be? What am I going to do? How am I going to get OUT of here?

I've spent a good deal of the dreary, grey months of this mild Wisconsin winter scribbling in my journal, praying for clarity and digging in my heart and mind for the answers to these questions. The answer came just a few days ago:

Graduate School. In Los Angeles. Teaching at a private high school in my dream job as an English/History teacher.

I have orientation this weekend (my flight leaves at 5:16 pm tonight!) and I'm a combination of nerves, excitement, reluctance and ambition. I can't wait to start my classes, planning my lessons and getting to know my students. On the other hand, I'm not so sure about living in community again (a requirement of the program)and I'm hesitant to give up the freedoms I've enjoyed as an independent "adult". I've had my fill of "ice breakers" and "where are you from? what did you study? Oh, that's so cool!" and "You are here for a very important reason..." That said, at the end of these two years I will receive a "debt free" Master's degree in Childhood and Adolescent Literacy from a very well-respected private university, have 2 years of urban teaching experience under my belt and (hopefully) have grown my professional network and as a result gained the keys to countless doors of opportunity that would be locked otherwise.

So this is another beginning to another adventure. I'm going to keep the title of this blog because, even though "service" isn't the main part of this endeavor, it will still be an important element to the overall experience, both for my students and for me.

Are you ready for this? I hope I am!