Well, it's been a year and then some since I departed Moldova. It was jarring, difficult, and a bit frightening. It was unexpected, it played out in ways that turned out to be beyond my control, and, all the while, I worried and worried and worried. I prayed and prayed and prayed.
I guess it worked.
Here I am, now, a whole twenty minutes' drive from the house I grew up in, teaching in what I know firsthand to be an exceptional school district in a beautiful area of rural Western Pennsylvania. When they say the Lord works in mysterious ways, this must be the kind of thing they're talking about.
I landed the job within less than a couple months of learning I was back in the states to stay. My interview went smashingly on a Tuesday morning, and they told me they'd begin calling applicants back no sooner than Monday. Well, lucky me, I didn't even have to spend a weekend stressing, because it took them just a couple of days to call and offer me a full-time position as a Reading Specialist.
As it turns out, the job is as good as it sounded. I work with 32 students at one school, 10 at another, and with a total of 5 classes at a third. My days fly by, and my weeks go just as quickly. We do something new and different just as often as I can manage, and my students' enthusiasm for it all must be correlated somehow to the tremendous growth I've seen in so many of them.
I enjoy the company of my colleagues and the respect I feel when I work with them. Most of all, I enjoy my students and all they share with me.
So, with all this good stuff going on, plus an apartment in which I have made myself very happily at home, plans to volunteer with a summer reading camp at the school, and even the anticipation of a new pet (okay, I still rent, so nothing too big or furry), I thought maybe I still have things worth sharing.
I figured if anyone's interested in knowing what I'm up to or what I'm thinking, it may be the folks who were paying attention while I was away, so I wanted to share the address for the new blog with you. There isn't a lot to it yet, but I'm planning on trying to add more often, especially next school year when I feel a bit less like I'm blindly stumbling through an unfamiliar job.
Here's a link, if you feel like checking it out. I may pretty it up in time, but for now, it's just words. They're my words, though, and I'm pleased enough with them to share.
Just Me (and The Simply Lovely Life I Live)
Enjoy! Hope to see you there!
