Seasons

Tomorrow is my first day with students. It will be a half-day, so I will have shortened classes, something like 25 minutes or so. I have just spent an hour and a half at the pool this Sunday morning, one last time (it feels like), reading the Yearbook curriculum and starting A Separate Peace, the first novel I'll be teaching.

I will forever think of this summer as unique in my experience; a summer of waiting, of not knowing what was next, but for the first time in a long time, knowing what I wanted to be next. It's been a summer of solitude, with lots of time by the pool: some days being the only person there, other days cursing the fact that I had no earplugs with me. I looked forward to my small group meetings every other Wednesday, and I became part of two book clubs. I didn't travel a lick, but my parents and grandmother came for a visit, so I did some sightseeing. I tried to lure friends into spending time with me with the pool as bait. It worked a few times. I babysat for two weeks and got some "back-to-school" money. I joined Weight Watchers and 2 weeks in, have lost 7.2 lbs. (Hell yeah!) The new Harry Potter movie came out, and I saw it three times, and the last book came out, and I went to the midnight party, and was on TV talking about it. I read the book through twice in the first four days that I had it (and am now on a very slow, one-chapter-before-bed reading number three.)

I marveled at God's provision for this summer - that I was able to not work, aside from the babysitting, and live off the money I saved from working last semester. Miraculous, really. I checked job postings for the school district literally 4-5 times a day, and ended up getting my job after a ballsy, unsolicited plea to the director of teacher recruitment. My job was an unposted position. I felt supported by my small group in particular, in ways that were humbling and exciting as I prayed for interviews (that never happened) and the one that finally did. I am in a school now, in a job, that I already love, and I cannot believe my good fortune. It's early, I know, but it feels "right." And it's better than I would've settled for.

Though the calendar (and certainly the thermometer) still proclaim that it's summer, my summer ended a week ago, and even walking to the pool this morning, there were fallen leaves all around my building, and I could feel that fall is coming. Maybe it's more to do with going back to school that it's starting to feel like fall. I don't know. But whatever season this is, I can't help but feel excited that it's a new one for me.