Time

It doesn't seem like it's possible, but next week begins my sixth year of teaching high school. It's a completely unreal feeling, thinking that I've been doing this for five years.

It's cliche' to say "it seems like yesterday," - but it does.

My first year is such a blur to me. I remember coming to school from my apartment, trying to just survive the day. I remember spending hours and hours preparing, lesson planning, and just THINKING about what I was going to do the next day. Of course, I could never predict what was to happen, so I always felt like I could have done more.

It's so different now. While teaching still takes a considerable amount of time, the time spent is just so much more fun than ever before.

I've learned to give the power to the students. They can handle it if you teach them how.
I've learned to say no. Often. Repeatedly. Without argument. It makes saying "yes" so much more meaningful.
I've learned that you absolutely can have fun in class while challenging the students.

I've learned that, even in the chaotic mess of the school day, and in this wild world we live in - I absolutely can make a difference.

I can't wait for this year, this adventure, to begin.

Avery

This is my second cousin, Avery.


















The title sounds so weird. A "second cousin" sounds like someone I'd only meet every five years, at some weird family reunion, and I'd say "Wow - you look different... it's been like five years since I saw you." Then they'd laugh and that'd be it as we politely avoided each other because we didn't have anything to say.

Avery is not that kind of a second cousin.

Her mother, Becky, is much more of a sister to me. I grew up with Becky and spent a lot of time with her family when I was young - so she's always been close to my heart.

Now she's a mother, and I can't keep my eyes dry as I write this.

Yesterday, as I looked at Avery with a strange sense of bewilderment, amazement, and awe(That's a baby! That's Becky's baby!), it was hard not to have flashes of her future pass before me.

She has amazing parents and a family full of warmth and love. She will never know the sting of her parent's divorce, the crushing pain of abuse, or the abandonment of her own dreams.

Her life will be one in which all things are possible. She has people in her life that will fight for her dreams - that will make sure her future is one that is filed with truth and beauty - of strength and hope.

I can see her holding hands with her parents, laughing, playing, dreaming, hoping, and loving.

She will treat animals as the precious gifts they are.

She will love to eat.

The color purple will always be special to her.

She will brag that she has the coolest grandparents on the face of the Earth.

Her aunt will spoil her and will always be close to her, even if there is physical distance between them.

There will be thousands of photographs of her.

She will make a difference in this world.

Most importantly, she will never know how lucky she is.

That's the way it should be.