One Step Closer

There was a special feeling that I used to get that would take over my mind and body when I used to lace up my sneakers for a basketball game. It was a feeling that I got when I had faith in myself and in my teammates. This feeling let me know that we had prepared ourselves as best as we could for those four quarters spent on the court, to do what we had set out to do. Everything was silent in a noisy high school gym, but I stayed focused and could feel the composed energy of my team lifting me to believe that anything was possible at this instant. This feeling only lasted a few moments at most, but in those quick blurs, my mental preparedness and confidence meant everything, not only to me but to my teammates as well. Once I graduated high school and no longer played basketball competitively, I lost this feeling, this rush to do what I was so ready to do and so passionate about. I spent the first three years of my college career trying to find this alternate state of consciousness in other things. I think I finally have found it...

As I sit here trying to organize and reorganize my thoughts, nerves, apprehensions, excitement, and my luggage(yikes!) to prepare myself for this journey, I realize something that is key. It is within these wee hours of the night that I begin to feel that rush take over me as if I were stepping onto the basketball court once again. My body goes off to another place, my mind follows, and it is only my team and I taking action together, reaching for our common goal. This full body and mind experience is at first unfamiliar. But immediately, I bring myself to the conclusion that teaching and learning is what my team and I have spent years on opening our minds to and working to perfect, this is what we do best. This is our passion.

We have not left the USA yet, but I am already learning so much about myself as a teacher and how I want to be a life long learner. I am so ready.