An egg

Today I defended my thesis successfully and will be graduating with university honors. Let me tell you, this is a huge weight off my back. Last week I didn't even have a complete paper until about 4 on Friday afternoon. People said that student teaching would be hard, but I never really understood how hard until I looked up and saw that we had like 6 weeks to go in the semester and WAY too much work to get done. Somehow, though... I managed to make it.

I've spent the last six weeks teaching at two of the worst performing schools in the district. It has given me a lot of insight into teaching in a high poverty situation, that's for sure. I've had to deal with children's services, a physical fight, a lock down drill, tornado drill, fire drill, and a shooting of one family's uncle. To say that teaching takes a toll is the understatement of the year. Mentally, physically, emotionally, it was all I could do to get to spring break. But now that my thesis is mostly out of the way I think life will be an eensy bit better.

I also heard today that only two people applied for the two positions with Promise Neighborhood next year, and one of them will most likely be going on to grad school(aka we'd be really surprised if she didn't) - and I am not going on to grad school. So, W. said today that he was going to hire me and look for another person to fill the second spot. Nothing official, but in my book that's a real confirmation!

Also, W. did something today that rendered me speechless. He's been helping me through the whole thesis process and he and his wife were talking about me this morning because of my defense. This afternoon I went to meet him to talk about my presentation. He slid a small package wrapped in tissue paper toward me. "This is from Mar," he said. And then told me a beautiful story about how this gift, a small green ceramic/stone egg, is now mine. It used to be Mar's father's. He talked about the shape as not only the place where of course life is nurtured, but it speaks to the wider idea of new beginnings. And while there are many things coming to a close now that we have less than four weeks until commencement, it is also a time for new beginnings. And so of course I held back tears as this little inconspicuous stone encapsulates some of my anxieties, hopes, and blessings.

And what a blessing to have people like that in this world.