After a few monthes in a new environment, one would think that one would have adjusted a bit. New faces, food, roads, landscapes, radio stations, churches, apartment, jobs, and so much more. These new things have been quickly turning in to daily adventures that seem to hold my interest long enough to notice that this chapter of my life should not be left undocumented. With so many new crisp creases being made in my life on a daily basis, I'm surprised that I'm standing on level ground!
So it all started on the busy rainy day that college ended. I didn't really know than how much my life would change as we ran from the football field to find the car as rain fell down hard. The transition of roles from the student to educator was about to begin after 17 years of schooling. Wow. Though I can say, I'm learning lots as it is in my new role! As a first year teacher in a urban city school, I'm feeling like a glass of oil and water. The mixing isn't going super well, but I hear from all around me that even for the veterans it's hard to mix. With a current art room budget of ZERO, my brain is constantly turning for ideas and solutions of cheap fixes that will prove themselves a meaningful fix. With students coming from an area with a current record of gang activities and poverty at such young ages and 500 standardized tests to pass, everyone's burned out, including the students. With a staff that is 30% new to the school, the veteran support is a bit lacking and encouragement is seen only at home, prayers, friends, and a few key students who's smilies are so big they clear the sky.
However there are other changes too! Wonderful changes, the fun and excited kind! Becoming a wife to an incredible man and starting a life in a new city half way across the country type of changes. These changes provide themselves interesting in so many ways, such as seeing palm trees lining the streets in a city instead of oaks or gingko trees. Realizing and owning the responsibility of making sure we always have toilet paper. Silly things. Silly new things.
So I'm learning. Learning through so many changes that God is in control of constantly. And this is the beginning of a new journey, a new chapter. As a friend once said, if we had known what God had prepared for us in advance, we would be prone to ignore it and run from it as hard as we were able. So it is with some of my new changes, such as my job! Had I known of the hardships ahead of time, I think I would have ran, however, being here I am assured that God has placed me there for reasons I can't know yet.
After a mountain range of up and downs this week, I'm glad a fresh start is always awaiting us every morning. A crisp new morning.
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