life beyond the well…

Tag Archives: Life


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Mr. President, can you excuse me from…

My president is pretty cool.  I’ve always thought that, but after hearing about this story last week, it’s been confirmed.

While at a town hall meeting, President Obama was asked a question by a man in the audience.  The man also mentioned that he had brought along his daughter, Kennedy, to the town hall meeting and he hoped that her absence would be excused.

Our president, being who he is, proceeds to write a letter for Kennedy, which says, “To Kennedy’s Teacher:  Please excuse Kennedy’s absence.  She’s with me.”

Since I now know that he’s in the excuse letter writing business, I have some things that I need him to excuse me from…and also some things that need to be excused:

  1. Faculty Meetings
  2. Faculty In-Service Training
  3. HR Meetings
  4. Anything that requires me to consistently wear a skirt/dress
  5. Long lines at the grocery store
  6. Any Wal-Mart that doesn’t offer butter cream cupcakes
  7. Plies, T-Pain, and on some occasions, Lil Wayne
  8. Marvin Sapp’s “Never Would Have Made It” sandwiched between two secular songs (ie: Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop”, Never Would Have Made It, Shirley Murdock’s “As We Lay”)
  9. Rude people
  10. THAT coworker (everyone has one…and if you can’t think of one, you’re THAT coworker for everyone else)
  11. Florida Traffic/Drivers (Are you really blowing your horn AS SOON AS the light turns green, when you’re car #4 at the light?  You weren’t going to be moving right away ANYWAY)
  12. Mosquitoes
  13. People who constantly retweet on Twitter
  14. The Iphone vs. Blackberry debate
  15. Skinny jeans and scarfs for men

Okay…so I think I’ll stop there.  For now.  What would you want President Obama to excuse you from or to just excuse in general?


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All My Bags Are Packed…

Well, my bags aren’t QUITE packed, but I’m READY TO GO.  It’s been a while since I’ve written, because the life of a teacher gets to be crazy around the end of the year.  There are tons of end of the year shenanigans: meetings, parties, final exams, review sessions, and for me…preparing to move.

Yup.  I’m going to make another move.

After being in the Sunshine State for just under a year, I’ll be calling it quits…and heading to a land that is much more familiar, but still somewhat unknown: the Old North State.  Yes!  Heading back home to North Carolina!

While I haven’t detailed it much here, it’s been a particularly difficult year for me in Florida.  Between challenges with my school, the students, and their parents; along with never really feeling quite “settled”…I thought it was best to leave before I got too attached.  Along with the desire to be somewhere where at least a few people know my name, have family close, and be even more cautiously optimistic as I partake in what continues to be one of the biggest blessings to my life.

I will still be teaching.  As I began the journey of figuring out what was next, a big question was whether the classroom was truly the place for me.  Was I able to fully exercise and utilize my gifts and talents by working in the classroom setting?  After much thought and prayer, I realized that my calling is to a classroom.  I love the energy and watching their eyes light up as the connections are made.  But what I love most is that classrooms are still full of possibility.  There are full of what’s to come, of what could be.  And I’m thankful that God has given me the desire to be a part of that possibility, as well as the ability to handle that responsibility.

The next stop on my journey will be Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.  I’ll be working as a teacher at the KIPP: Gaston College Preparatory School.  I’ve been impressed with KIPP Schools since seeing the founders on Oprah a few years back, and I feel extremely blessed to be able to work in that environment.  Of course, a new environment creates new challenges, but I’m very excited about what’s to come.

Of course life wouldn’t be life if there weren’t too many things to take care of in too little time.  However, in the midst of all of the “things”, I’ve been able to enjoy myself.  Memorial Day weekend was awesome- laid back and enjoyable, with some time spent at the beach, and I enjoyed my last Jewish holiday of the school year, Shavout (it’s when the Jews received the Torah from God) by taking a short trip to the Bahamas.  Life is good.

At any rate, I’ll be grinding it out for the next week or so, as I make it to the end of the year.  Then I’ll make a quick trip to North Carolina for a very special graduation, and then it’s back here to pack it up and move it out.  To sum up Florida:  “…all of my good days outweigh my bad days and I won’t complain.”

As for now, back to the grind!  Until next time…