These, Our Lives...

Celeste and I wake up every morning between 5:15-5:45. I'm usually up by about 5:15 to give me ample time to read. Right now I'm in the middle of "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis (which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001, FYI). I eat a few bowls of cold cereal, do a few pull-ups, then get showered and ready for the day. Celeste usually packs our lunches, which are almost exclusively assembled from leftovers from the night before. Grilled chicken and rice is always on the menu.

We're at school before 7:00. The drive from Oxford to Henderson is short - about 10 minutes - and is usually complimented by a stunning sunrise over the kudzu and pine tree alleys. We usually listen to NPR (or National Communist Radio, as my father-in-law would call it) and get our fill of the current events. Absent from this year's daily drives is the overwhelming panic in our hearts that used to nearly cripple us as we'd approach each new day. It's been replaced by some strange sensation that we're still getting used to. I think they call it peace of mind.


When the kids arrive, Celeste and I become experts in the fields of American History and Earth Science. I tell my kids that Columbus isn't necessarily the hero their previous teachers made him out to be, and Celeste fills their head with crazy ideas like the earth is billions of years old. Pshhh...where's that in the Bible? This week I get to teach about the Boston Massacre and the American Revolution. Celeste is moving on to plate tectonics. You can even check out her class website at http://nvhsearthscienceolsen.wikispaces.com. Celeste's students use that website everyday because they've each been issued laptops by the school as part of a 1-to-1 initiative. Pretty cool stuff.

When the bell rings at the end of the day, I put on my coaching hat and hardcore sunglasses to make me look tough next to the other coaches. All of them played college football. All are 250 lbs. or more. All are black. All have arms thicker than my waist. What I lack in size, I make up for with confidence, football know-how, and that big golden championship ring I got in high school for being the 3rd string quarterback when my team took state. Good times.


While I'm out on the field yelling my throat soar, Celeste is usually in her classroom, helping kids keep up or catch up in her academically rigorous course. She's a tough one, that Celeste, but she follows her stern disposition and high expectations with empathy and compassion, and is more willing than most teachers to go the extra mile to help a student in need.

When practice is over, Celeste picks me up (we still carpool everyday, and still only have the one car) and together we head back to Oxford. Where we once came home to several more hours of work and lesson planning for the next day, this year we've been able to enjoy our evenings together, doing any number of activities: cooking elaborate meals, hanging out with friends, or going to sleep before the sun sets. We still have the occasional evening where the demands of our jobs require our attention, but it's a far cry better than what it was last year. We also have church duties that require a lot of our time and attention, but the thought of giving God more time and service doesn't bother us. I go to meetings, do service projects, play the piano a lot, and Celeste gets to teach cute little primary kids.



We close each night with a prayer of thanks, grateful to God for such wonderful lives. We make a living out of making living better for others. We get paid to improve the lives of others, in a very real, tangible way. That's feels good. Really good. It's a feeling I've got to chase.

Proud to be an Aggie!!!

Utah State hey Aggies all the way!!! Go Aggies, go Aggies, hey, hey, hey!!!

Okay, now some of you might think that I'm just hot on the Aggies because they played GREAT football against #7 Oklahoma last night, AT Oklahoma. Under the bright lights and in front of 90,000 screaming Sooner fans, the Boys of Blue really shined. We took it to Oklahoma, surprising them and the nation. Sure, we didn't win, but we kept it close until the very end, and sent Oklahoma fans home wiping the sweat from their arrogant brows. The truth is, I was going to blog about the Aggies this week anyway. This weekend's football game just got me more jazzed up than I had planned to be.

As a second year teacher, I've discovered that I have more time in my schedule and more free space in my brain to try new and fun things, now that much of the stress in my life has been removed like a cancerous tumor. I have the ability now to try to implement some outside-of-the-box thinking into my classroom. So, in that vein, this year I decided to nickname each of my classes by a different college (I assigned class nicknames by the alma mater's of each classes homebases classes - for example, their science teacher went to ECU, so they're the Pirates, etc...). The idea here is to open up a dialogue about higher education and remove some of the negative stigma that these kids have for college. My homebase happens to be very lucky. They are the Utah State Aggies, even though they live in North Carolina and wouldn't know Utah from the Strait of Gibraltar.

In addition to the nicknames, I have a corner of my room plastered with college paraphanelia (College Corner). I've also instituted an optional dress code in my classroom. It's pretty simple, really. The only real proviso is that every Friday is college day, and kids (and teacher) wear college garb if they have it. This was only the first week, but we did have a few participants, and I was pretty happy with the turnout.

To really spoil my homebase, I got in touch with my friends Jen and Whitney Putnam at the USU Admissions office, and they sent me a USU banner, pennant, and a mess of USU pens and stickers, which I distributed to my homebase. They thought it was awesome.

I've always loved Utah State. And though I left it behind for a new chapter of life, and will likely never return except to visit, my heart will forever yearn for its song and Spectrum, and the silhouette of Old Main against a setting sun.

GO AGGIES!!!