Introduce Yourself

I taught high-school English for 11 years before this, and not returning to the classroom this fall means I get to redefine myself without teacher as the core of my identity. It’s wonderfully freeing and, so far, less scary than I thought it would be. The mom and wife parts of my identity have taken up any spare psychic energy I’ve had for the last five years, so now I get to rediscover and grow other parts like friend, daughter, sister(-in-law), musician, and writer. So I’m setting the intention this year of becoming a full-ass person again. I’m going to travel, cook, sing, dance, stay up late, make more messes with my kids, reconnect with my husband, and laugh more. 

I’m also going to write things other than lesson plans and emails. I used to write poetry! (My best friend recently admitted to me that she plagiarized a poem of mine in college because she was one poem short on an assignment, and I was always sending her my moody verses freshman year.) I don’t know if I’m a big enough emotional mess to write (my brand of) poetry anymore, but I’ve written some random analyses of TV and movies lately, as well as the beginnings of some chapters for a future book about why I left teaching and the grim direction in which public education is headed.