The very strangest thing happened this morning.
My sweet Aunt Janet is in town, and she asked about the next book I’m writing, a memoir with the running title Every Confidence.
I talked about the first chapter that opens with this sentence: “The first bully of my life was my fourth grade teacher.”
(I will tell you that story someday.)
I told her how my terrible year as a fourth grader shaped who I later became as a teacher. I talked about my classroom, how I fostered such a joyful and colorful learning environment, how I so enjoyed my students and the community we created together. I told her about the affirmations I poured over them, about the poster in the classroom that said Today became great when YOU got here.
I told her how I loved teaching, loved my students, loved their families, loved it all. That’s when the strangest thing happened. All of a sudden, I wanted to teach again.
It was the voice of a little tiny speck of something inside me, like when Horton hears a Who. A tiny whisper called out, tugging on my heart, saying “We’re still here…”
I never thought I’d see this day or feel that tug on my heart.
Perhaps this whole thing of becoming a barista has shown me that Widow Brain wouldn’t last forever, my mind is still capable of great things, and only I can put the lid on the possibilities.
You can take the girl out of the classroom, but you can’t take the classroom out of the girl.
I think that's great, Tricia! If you decide to follow that tug on your heart, I'd thought of subbing at first, too, but whether you did that or jumped back into your own classroom, there'd be some blessed children out there!
To this I yell horray!
Now, this posting on your blog made me smile. Big. Really big.
Oh such true words. Over the past year, and even more so now, I've had a niggling feeling about teaching. The question is in what capacity? That is yet to be determined by God, but for right now I'm not pushing the feeling away. Just sitting in it.
You should think about subbing at your sons' school. I taught elementary for 18 years and when my son was born I stopped. Once he was in school, I volunteered in his classrooms and got the itch to teach again, but not fulltime. I began subbing in his school and continue to do so today. He's in 5th grade now and on to a different building. Subbing scratches my itch for teaching, but gives me time for other intrerests, too. Kind of like having my cake and eating it, too!! 🙂