The Beginning

In less than twelve hours, a new journey will commence. On Monday (August 8) morning, I fly to Alaska to start my new role as a Fifth Grade Teacher. To say that this next year will be extreme would probably be an understatement. In the next several weeks alone, new and multifaceted challenges will present themselves, and that is even before the school year begins.

...and now I’m sitting at the airport about to embark on this insane adventure. It is intriguing to think about minutiae that brought me to this point. When I began college, I wanted to be a doctor, so I went to Grove City. After two years, I decided to become a teacher. In all likeliness, I would have attended Bloomsburg if I had known I wanted to teach from the beginning. Changing majors also meant I would graduate a semester late...which meant I was living with Gino...and put me at PERC at the right time...and meant I was waiting around for him by the Bering Strait booth while he was finishing his interview...which got me an informal second interview...during which they found out we were roommates. This chain of seemingly random occurrences has brought me to this point. One different decision at any point along this journey would have produced a drastically different outcome.

Earlier this summer, I read a book by Donald Miller called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. A major premise of the book was that you have the ability to create a better story out of your life, and in many respects, it was quite inspirational. But right now, I find it to be encouraging as well. I can look back on the decisions I’ve made over the last year and know that I am doing something extraordinary. I am certainly in a story worth living.