i'm approaching exhaustion. this profession is a tiring one. teaching is not for the easily annoyed or impatient and the sheer amount of time it takes to prepare a lesson makes me realize something: it's cliche to say that teachers are undervalued, but now i can understand exactly how true and by how much that cliche stands.
so to them i express my eternal gratitude and debt.
to roberta, who started me on my long path to education way back in preschool, who made the best macaroni and cheese ever, i say thank you.
to miss hawkins, my kindergarten teacher, who started my formal education, i say thank you.
to miss quigley, my first grade teacher, and whom showed the perfect mix of patience and upset when i made the stupid decision to pull the chair out from under another student. i obviously regret that to this day. i also managed to nearly take out my eye in first grade while playing on the playground. i ran into the school bleeding and she helped me to the nurse's office. to miss quigley, i say thank you.
to mrs. hutzel, my second grade teacher and whom once chastised me for my first ever "brain fart" (i forgot how to spell "a-l-l", even though i knew i knew) and who tried her hardest to instill a love of reading in me, i say thank you.
to mrs. ball and miss kennedy, my kenyan teachers, my fourth standard teachers, they helped me adjust and meet new students and make friends when i was in kenya as a young child, to them, i say thank you.
(to mrs. burkhead, my stateside third grade teacher and whose class i only attended for a week or two but who nonetheless got the class to send a very large poster-paper letter to me in kenya, i say thank you.)
to mrs. harvey, my fourth grade teacher and a remarkable one at that, she was the first teacher to truly encourage me to think outside the box. plus, i got to disect frogs (some of which we only found in our freezer 5 years ago) in her class... i remember bouncing the eyeballs around the classroom - ah, children remember the craziest and most disgusting things. to mrs. harvey, i say thank you.
to mrs. fleener, my fifth grade teacher, who realized my potential and pushed me to reach it despite my most stubborn attempts to avoid it. i'm sorry i read all those comic books in class, but it was my hobby then. i'm sorry i didn't focus my academic energy. i was unmotivated but it was entirely my own doing - you pushed and i simply didn't respond. to mrs. fleener, i say thank you.
to mrs. furman, my sixth grade homeroom teacher, who encouraged me when i finally decided to work towards my potential, and who probably saw through me and realized i had a crush on her, i say thank you.
to my many 7th grade teachers, i say thank you.
to mr. courtney, my seventh and eighth grade humanities teacher, who was the best kind of teacher, the kind who lets students wander intellectually but always brought us back to a central theme, i say thank you. it encourages children to learn when you remove the restraints and let their own curiosity educate them.
to ms. witten/mrs. upchurch and mr. upchurch, my 7th and 8th grade choir teachers, who started me on the road to what is surely my biggest emotional (and probably financial) investment in life: music - may not make it now, but i feed off of it nonetheless, i say thank you.
to my many 8th grade teachers, i say thank you.
to mrs. nowlin, my eighth grade english teacher, who was a definite tough love teacher, who made me work for my grade, i say thank you.
to mr. nicola, my eighth grade science teacher, who smoked many cigarettes a day, who provided my first real exposure to a dry sense of humor, i say thank you.
to my many 9th grade/freshman year teachers, i say thank you.
to ms. witten (again), my high school choir teacher, who affected me with her devotion and dedication, both emotional and physical, who pushed our class to achieve the best, who encouraged and understood better than most teachers, i say thank you.
to mrs. mcglasson, my high school humanities and economics teacher, who first heavily exposed me to the basis of most modern american humor: sarcasm, who let the students do the education, i say thank you.
to mr. farmer, my high school biology teacher, who first showed me that science is fun and that teachers who are fascinated by their subject more than anything else make learning fun, i say thank you.
to mrs. cease, my high school spanish teacher, who started me on the road towards spanish - a road on which, alas, i'm now heading the wrong direction, who gave me my first 113% for a grading period, i say thank you.
to my many 10th grade teachers, i say thank you.
to mr. blair, my 10th grade physics teacher, who made being a geek fun and who actually got me to understand physics (for a short time, at least), i say thank you.
to my many 11th grade teachers, i say thank you.
to ms. springer (now mrs. rademacher), my 11th and 12th grade theatre teacher, who helped me finally identify myself, who helped me come to the realization that i really do like attention (do i ever), i say thank you. i might have been a bad actor (on stage, at least), but she still gave me a chance!
to ms. goh (now mrs. welch), my 11th grade algebra teacher, who finally managed to make mathematics interesting and fun for me, i say thank you.
to mr. flannery, my 11th grade (and 7th period) US history teacher, who made history fun and interesting despite my best effort to hate it, who sponsored PROUD in a southern Indiana high school, i say thank you.
to mr. lumley, my 11th grade chemistry teacher, who gave me my only C in high school, who peeled his own skin in order to show the harmful effects of acid upon skin, i say thank you.
to my many 12th grade teachers, i say thank you.
to mr. welch, my 12th grade anthropology teacher, who made me laugh, i say thank you.
to mrs. stake, my high school guidance counselor, who, by the nature of her job, works more closely with the students and who steered me towards the right universities, who did little but offer encouragement and smiles which i appreciate to this day, i say thank you.
to my many freshman year professors at carleton, i say thank you.
to carl weiner, my frosh year professor of history, who is a classic and who can never be beaten in a competition for best gruff exterior manner but soft inside (see also "tough love"), whose class might not have been my cup of tea but who surely introduced me to the level at which i would have to push myself to succeed at carleton, who had my class over for a truly excellent spaghetti dinner, i say thank you.
to my many sophomore year professors at carleton, i say thank you.
to cindy blaha, my sophomore year astronomy professor, who taught me the beauty of the cosmos, who taught me fascination, who still hasn't amended the grade on my transcript after my final project was plagiarized/stolen but who nevertheless provided me with invaluable knowledge - i mean, i never thought i would be able to understand the complicated physics that surrounds astronomy but she managed to do it (for a short time, at least). to her, i say thank you.
to ruth weiner, my sophomore year professor of theatre/acting, who finally got me to act (i think), who really enjoys teaching and who infects her students with the same enjoyment, i say thank you.
to jeff ondich, my sophomore year computer science professor, who could moonlight as a comedian, i say thank you.
to my many junior year professors at carleton, i say thank you.
to carol donelan, my junior and senior year professor of film, advisor and friend, who finally made something so interesting for me that i just had to major in it, who always kept me interested, who remains to this day my favorite professor, i say thank you.
to john schott, my junior and senior year professor of media, who makes being a technogeek look fun, who encouraged and prodded, who made me do some last minute shooting for my thesis film(s), and who currently runs Afghanistan, i say thank you.
to mark mckone, my junior year biology and ecology professor (and senior year evolution professor, albeit i audited that class), whose lectures were works of art in their blend of educational value and humor, i say thank you.
to my many senior year professors at carleton, i say thank you.
to barbara allen, my senior year professor of media and politics, whose tears in 2000 and whose passion for politics made me truly realize how committed to justice and good governance one ought to be, i say thank you.
to my professors/teachers during my non-degree year at Indiana, i say thank you.
i'm sure i left people out and in a perfect world my memory would be able to fill in the holes, but this isn't a perfect world and i cannot remember every teacher i had. it is not because they were bad teachers; after all, if they were bad, i would surely remember them. it is not because they were unimportant or uninfluential teachers, as every teacher has affected me in many ways whether i know it or not and whether or not i remember their name.
i appreciate deeply the effort and commitment these people have made towards my future and the future of so many other people. i appreciate immensely the time they take and the patience they show.
at the end of all of this, i still have a few more teachers left to thank. they are or were not my teachers by profession but rather by nature. they did not make lesson plans for me in the usual sense. nor did they ever get paid monetarily for their time.
to my friends, who have been with me at any miscellaneous moment of my life, who have showed me generosity, goodwill, compassion and all the other attributes that come with being a friend, with whom i wish i could spend more time, i say thank you.
to adam noble, who has been my friend since we were preschoolers, who has always been there for me if i needed him, who continually pesters me to write more e-mails (these blog posts suck, i know, but they're efficient), i say thank you.
to dan sowell, my friend for just as long with whom i did have a large rough spot, who i'm happy is on the right road and happy about it, i say thank you.
to paco, who taught me about cultural differences and who i understand much better now that i've lived in europe, who i apologize to for being such a git while he was living with my family, who i hope is doing much better since his accident, i say thank you.
to adam flood, my friend from college and beyond, who always makes me laugh (buh-buh-buhKAW!), who is an honest and caring individual, i say thank you.
to lisa, what i said about adam applies equally for you, i say thank you.
to jen and bear, who are the model for a perfect relationship, who are graciously allowing me to keep posting these fluff posts, i say thank you.
to the innumerable other college friends, who would make this post a novel (instead of the novellette it already is), who i will never forget even if we don't talk for ages, i say thank you.
to marc, who taught me that bosses can make great friends, i say thank you.
to the art department, who showed me that there are phenomenal people in l.a. after all, i say thank you.
to my prague friends, i've found a place i feel i belong and it is in no small part because of you, i say thank you.
to cyn, who taught me that i'm not the only crazy person in the world, who taught me that it's fun to break up, i say thank you.
to my brother, who has influenced me from the day i was born and who has been my role model for that same amount of time, who unknowingly made me focus on getting good grades and getting into a good college, who makes me laugh and makes me think and makes me thankful and makes me better, i say thank you.
to my father, who is an enormous role model as well, who shows too much compassion (i mean, how can i ever repay him, financially or emotionally?!), who epitomizes generosity and kindness and understanding and patience and decency, i say thank you.
to my mother, who is a fantastic role model as well, whose complexity and beauty and intelligence and commitment and charity are rooted so deep and make so many waves that i can only aspire to achieve them, i say thank you.
to my grandmother, who is a source of inspiration to all who meet her, who has devoted her life to making not only my family a better family but also to making the world a better world, who makes age look easy and makes me proud to be me and makes me optimistic that the world will be alright (despite current preoccupations with the current world situation), i say thank you.
to my late grandfather, who i remember only by half, i regret the unavoidable immaturity by which i knew you, who provided his son and his son's sons with intelligence, goodwill and humor, i say thank you.
to my late grandparents (on the other side), i regret not ever being able to know you fully, who provided my family and me with many complicated life lessons, i say thank you.
to julie, who has taught me that my entire family is beautiful in so many ways, who has proven to me that people from the midwest really are the nicest, i say thank you.
to lynn and gail, who have taught me that just because somebody isn't in your nuclear family, it doesn't mean that you cannot treat them with the same respect and love, i say thank you.
to the rest of my extended family, whom i love dearly and who will always support me, who make getting together fun instead of laborious, who are all intelligent and compassionate (gee, those words seem to be going around a lot), i say thank you.
and to anybody who actually read everything i wrote here, i say thank you.
blessed are the students.
so, i finally get to stay in praha for a weekend. we went to a tournament last weekend and won it. the competition wasn't tough.
but i've been playing ultimate every weekend for so long, i don't think i have many non-ultimate friends left here. i mean, i have many friends at my school, but they never ask me to do anything because i always tell them that i'm leaving town to play frisbee...
regardless,
"Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - -she lifted up her wings
I guess that this must be the place
I can't tell one from another"