A couple of former students have begun publishing blogs, so I thought I'd try my hand. This may be a shortlived effort depending on what actually shows up on these pages! Sometimes I have a tendency to ramble about random thoughts and this seemed a good platform for that.
The title for this blog really stumped me for a little while. I tried several different titles that didn't seem so obvious to me; evidently I was mistaken. The first three I tried weren't available. The fourth, the one I stuck with, is a reference to an inside "joke" between me and John. Joke may not be the right word here. Waltzing brings back many fond memories over the course of our marriage beginning with a conversation on the back porch of the dorm while we were dating, to a very thoughtful gift of ballroom dance lessons many, many years ago, right through quiet Saturday nights dancing at home in our living room. We've been waltzing for 23 years now and I'm looking forward to at least that many more. I'd love to be able to explain in more detail, but I'm just not sure anyone else would get it.
I promise to try not to make this a platform for venting after a long, hard day trying to help teenagers appreciate the beauty of literature and the power of the spoken language. Don't get me wrong, I have quite a few students who are very smart and will do great things with their lives. Then, of course, there are others. My days are made when one of those actually appears interested in what I have to say. I love what I do and it doesn't take very many of those days to keep me interested in continuing to get up every morning and try again. I've been doing this long enough that former students' children are starting school. I think I'm getting old. I'm not really sure how that happened. I mean, just yesterday I was the young teacher on the staff and now I'm one of the oldest. I have a grown child away in college who already outstrips me in life experiences. She is truly a world traveler and is comfortable in social situations I had never dreamed of when I was her age. My grandmother was my age when I was born. That's just wrong! I have friends who are grandparents. That's even more wrong!
I am at one of those crossroads in life where choices of how to carry on must be made. So far, I've just drifted with the current. The realization that what happens from here is all up to me is a bit overwhelming. I think what I should have learned many years ago that I am just now understanding is that life isn't a journey; it's a series of day trips. Each phase of life is one trip. The sum of those parts is the journey. The Beatles (I LOVE the Beatles and will probably refer to them often, deal with it) had a song called "Day Tripper." Pretty sure their lyrics didn't refer to my particular references, but to me they fit. It's a one way ticket, you know?
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