Live with intention

Walk to the edge

Listen hard

Practice wellness

Play with abandon

Laugh

Choose with no regret

Continue to learn

Appreciate your friends

Do what you love

Live as if this is all there is

Mary Anne Radmacher

I fell in love with a disfunctional school. The vice principal offered me a 1st grade job with staff that were oh so welcoming in a room with a round window and blue carpet and for once I felt like this whole experience could actually really be happening.

But I'm supposed to take a special ed job because that's what my license will be and people just can't switch because Teach for America has to negotiate with the NYC Department of Ed and my enthusiasm is quickly squashed by red tape and unreturned phone calls.

I expected this. Disfunction and things not going the way I planned. For some reason I didn't think it would start until I entered my classroom.

Teach for America is, for the most part, efficient. But even the best of organizations break down sometimes. People are human and make mistakes. They apologize. It wasn't intentional. It's not really even entirely their fault. I just wish it wasn't happening to my dream.

It's time to pick up and move on because it's not about me or the staff at TFA or even the room with the little round window in the school that met me with open arms.

It's about kids. Kids in a classroom that are waiting for me to give them everything I have for the next 2 years. It's time to focus on that and not the messy, human process that it takes to get to them.