I touch the Future

As we enter the month of Thanksgiving, I have been reflecting on events that have changed the course of my life. I was recently listening to the song “This by Darius Rucker. He sings about “every stoplight I didn't make, every chance I did or I didn't take,” all those things that could have happened but didn’t led him to where he is today. And he wouldn’t change a thing. That’s how I’ve been feeling.

When our daughter was born, my husband and I decided that I would stay at home with her so that one of us would be with her all of the time. So I began my life as a stay-at-home mom. I continued my stay-at-home duties when my son was born, and fell in love with my job as the teacher and care provider for my two young children. When they started “real” school, I followed them and became a classroom volunteer. I planned class parties, copied papers for teachers, put up bulletin boards, and sat in the cafeteria with my own children once a week for lunch. But just as I had vowed when I was in college I continued my belief that there was no way that I would ever become a teacher!

I shared school with my children at school and at home. When we sat at the table to do homework, we would talk about the other students in their classes and their teachers. It was great fun! I also volunteered with the Parent/Teacher association. I helped with fundraisers and organized events at the school. I enjoyed working with the teachers at my children’s school, but I knew that I would never become a teacher. I had vowed it would never happen.

But when my son entered middle school, he refused to allow me to be a parent volunteer. He said it wasn’t “cool.” So I began plotting. I know how he loved sports, so I told him that if he let me apply to be a substitute teacher at the middle school that I would buy Oriole season tickets with the money I made. He agreed and his agreeing changed my life.

About a year after I began substitute teaching, I received a telephone call from the foreign language curriculum specialist. She needed a long-term Spanish substitute and since I had a minor in Spanish, she wanted to know if I was interested. I discussed it with my husband and both children and we agreed to give it a try.

I fell in love with teaching! I woke up excited about going to work, and lay awake in bed at night trying to figure out new teaching strategies to help my students. I was playing school again, but this time the students were not my own children. That was in the spring of 1999 and I have been teaching ever since. I have grown professionally and as a human being. Being part of the lives of my students has given me a new outlook, and I do indeed touch the future.

Our mothers are our first teachers, and my children taught me that!

They Say That Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

As we enter the month of Thanksgiving, I have been reflecting on events that have changed the course of my life. I was recently listening to the song “This by Darius Rucker. He sings about “every stoplight I didn't make, every chance I did or I didn't take,” all those things that could have happened but didn’t led him to where he is today. And he wouldn’t change a thing. That’s how I’ve been feeling.

When I was a senior in high school, I met a college student named Mike. We dated my entire senior year and he was my date to the prom. He even came to Ocean City when my friends and I were there for senior week. I spent every weekend with Mike and most evenings with him on the phone.

In college, Mike and I talked about getting married. We dreamed about how we would spend the rest of our lives together. I was so happy. Our relationship continued into my sophomore year of college. During Christmas break that year, Mike became somewhat distant. I knew that something was wrong but I just could not put my finger on it. I worried about what was going on but tried to keep my chin up.

Finally in February, the bomb dropped. Mike called to tell me that he wanted to break up. I thought it was the end of my world. How would I survive without him? I cried and cried, and when I thought I was all cried out, I cried some more. I stopped eating. I didn’t want to be with my friends. I just wanted to be comforted by my misery.

Whenever the phone rang, I would jump. Maybe he was calling to say that he missed me, that he wanted to get back together. But the phone calls were never for me. I started to lose weight and my grades began to drop. In short, I was no fun! But fortunately, I had some really good friends.

One of those friends was Rose. She called me one weekend and said “Let’s go out! We should head down to Annapolis and check out the midshipmen!” Reluctantly, I agreed. Little did I know that that night would forever change my life.

We were walking through Dalghren Hall when a nice young man passed us. As we exited the building, that same young man was there holding the door for us. The three of us walked, and chatted, and laughed. When I got home very late that night, I woke my mother to tell her that I had met the man I was going to marry. That was thirty-two years ago, and I look forward to celebrating thirty-one years of marriage with that nice young man!

And I will be forever thankful that Mike broke up with me!

The photo above is of that handsome midshipman on our first "official" date. This blogpost appeared in my column, "The Empty Nest," in the Frederick News Post on November 3, 2012.