I don't have any great epiphanies to share early this morning; just a few thoughts rolling around in my head. I've recently accepted a job at a neighboring school in our district. I'm thrilled at the new opportunity. It's a chance to leave my classroom and do what I've wanted to do for sometime now....teach - teachers.
But as excited as I am to be starting something new, I'm also broken at leaving home. Pleasant Hill is a small rural north Louisiana community of approximately 700 - good, God fearing, Bible reading, power praying, "give you the shirt of their backs" kind of people. It's just a little piece of southern heaven.......mixed appropriately enough with a little dab of small town "hell" at times too (LOL). But all in all it's my home!
I will miss the halls I've walked since I was a child. I will miss the smell of my classroom and the familiar laughter of my students I've had for years. I will miss my colleagues, most of whom I went to high school with. I will miss the comfort my girls felt, the ease at which they roamed the building and visited with other teachers (calling each of the "Aunt"......) -- I will miss the family who clung to us physically and spiritually as we walked the road called "childhood cancer." .........there are many things I will miss........
And yet, as I sit here and think of all I will miss, the irony becomes all to clear and it causes me to laugh out loud. My new school is only 10 miles up the road. :) It too is a small piece of southern heaven and is a place where I began my teaching career so many years ago. Although the familiarity is different....it's still familiar. I am confident that the things I will miss in leaving will soon become the things that comfort me in my new school. Already I've roamed the halls - remembering students and teachers. Already I've laughed with past colleagues and gotten to know new ones. Already people have asked about "Alli" and sought to make both girls feel welcome and at home. Already I've begun to get my feet on solid ground and begin the process of figuring out who I am and what I expect of myself and what is expected of me.
When I look back at the things I will miss and the things that lie ahead I realize that I've come "full circle" in my teaching career. As I struggled with "leaving home" the decision was made easier because I felt a sense of "going home" in the decision also.............so...........there's the epiphany! -- I'll always have ties to my home town - my home school - my childhood - my friends - my family!! But I also know that wherever I am that is home too! I have new relationships to forge and old ones to rekindle-- how awesome is that!!!!
So to my sweet family and friends at PHHS ......... it is with a heavy heart that I leave your hallowed halls. I love you and will miss you. And to my new family at CHS - thank you - for welcoming me back and making me feel like I've never "left home" -- God's love over each of you............
Jeremiah 29:11 -- For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord................. :)
