In 1996, I began my first full-time teaching job in a public school.
Prior to that, I spent a year as a permanent substitute, and a year as the sole high school teacher in a residential school for girls with emotional and psychological disorders.
However, in 1996, I interviewed and earned my first public school position as a 6th grade Social Studies teacher.
Every day since then, I thank my lucky stars for that opportunity.
I am grateful that I earned that job because it truly was the beginning of my career in public education which has been more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.
I am grateful that I earned that job because I was hired by a woman who would become my career mentor and helped me with many key decisions along the way.
But, mostly, I am grateful that I earned that job because of the people that I met in that school.
It’s a small school, and the atmosphere that existed in that building was that of family.
True family.
I left that school in 2004, and there are many things that I love about the district where I have worked since, including some amazing friends that I cannot imagine my life without, so I don’t wish that I hadn’t made the change.
But I miss the teachers from my old school every single day.
Most of us started our careers together in that school.
We figured out how to balance full-time jobs and social lives together.
We told each other about first dates with the men who would become our husbands.
These are the people on my wedding video, dancing like fools and laughing like we always did at work.
On Saturday, we had the opportunity to come together again to celebrate our colleague, Carolyn, who is having her first baby in June.
Carolyn has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I have ever met, and I am over the moon with excitement for she and her husband, Lamar, that they are expecting their beautiful little girl in a few months.
I was thrilled to get the invitation to the shower, and even more thrilled when I arrived and found the room full of people that I loved and missed.
We hugged, we talked, we laughed, we caught up, and more than once, we remarked that it was like we still worked together.
That instead of it being 9 years since we were all together, it was like we were hanging in the team room yesterday and happened to all wind up together again on Saturday.
Most of us have kept in touch through Facebook, and for those who aren’t on Facebook, we get news of each other through those who are.
I can’t tell you how very lucky I feel to have these people and to feel this way.
Walking into that room was like coming home.
We said that we have to get together more often, and I’m hopeful that we do, although I know how it goes.
We all work full-time, have families, and time slips away and before you realize it, 9 more years have passed.
I hope that’s not the case, this time, though, because spending the afternoon with them was definitely some much needed food for my soul.
I’m a very, very lucky girl.
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