LIFE IN BLOOM

Learning How to Flourish in God's Grace

Tag Archives: Life


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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…


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Understanding Where You Fit

Around this time last year, I wrote a post: “What happens when you outgrow your friends?”.  Ironically enough, I find myself asking the exact same question now.

As my life shuffles and changes, and I prepare for what’s to come, I realize that I miss the friendships that I had with people before.  However, perhaps the faulty logic for me comes from the fact that I had unrealistic expectations from my friends.

We’ve gotten older.  We live in different places.  We have different demands and priorities.  It’s completely unrealistic to use the college mold of a friendship to fit my real world scenario.  And if I’m honest with myself, we’re all different people.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but because of all the things that I’ve mentioned- age, different environments, different demands and priorities, even different experiences- my friends and I have changed.

Does that mean that we can’t be friends?  Not at all.  Some of the people that I cherish most are people who’ve lived their life completely different from how I choose to live mine.  However, through mutual love and respect, we’re able to maintain a friendship where each person is their authentic self .

However, as the title of this post says, I’m understanding where I fit in the lives of some of my friends.  Not quite a priority (actually nowhere near a priority), but if I ever REALLY needed something, I honestly think they’d be down for the cause.  But that raises a question: If I/our friendship is not a priority, should I be calling you in the event that I REALLY need something?  My thought is no.  And I say that because, if you’re placing a different value on the friendship/relationship than I am, the perceived/potential outcome of a situation where I need you is going to be different for you than for me- because your view of what’s important is different from mine.  Perhaps a better explanation might be like this:  Michael Jordan and I place a different value on $1000.  In the event where $1000 is lost or at stake, the outcome of that situation will be different because Michael Jordan views $1000 differently than I do, and because his view on how important $1000 is/how much of a difference $1000 could make is different from mine.

I’m digressing.  But I suppose that it’s possible that I have indeed outgrown my friends.  And while I still very much cherish the memories and the role that they’ve played in my life to help me become who I am, I’m done shouldering the efforts of keeping in touch and being aware of life updates.  While one could argue that having that role is where I fit in the friendship, I would maintain that even if that were the case, there should be some type of reciprocity.

That said, I’ll go forward from this with a greater understanding of my role in their lives, but also a greater understanding of the role of this friendship in my life.  I’m still blessed to be surrounded by people who care about me and love me dearly, even if it’s not those who I thought would be with me at this part of the journey.

Until next time…