Life is Good

When time and life allow, Celeste and I often sit and think about how beautiful life is. We ponder our heavenly blessings, our temporal luxuries, and the loving families we consider ourselves lucky to be apart of. On top of that, we marvel at our opportunities that most could only dream of. Being a part of the Teach For America family, having financial security through the Great Recession, and now embarking on what will be a life-changing journey with NELA - all bear testimony to one simple fact: life is good.

Of course, there are costs to our chosen course in life, and the one that weighs in the heaviest is the omnipresent fact that we are a 3-day drive or an all-night (and rather expensive) flight from most of our family and some of our dearest friends. It's not easy being separated by such a vast geographical gulf. We miss birthdays and weddings, recitals and soccer games. We miss nieces and nephews saying their first words, showing off their repertoire of tricks on the trampoline, and the shared heartwarming moment with their parents (of course, I don't mind missing diaper duty). In the end, it's the little things we miss. The beautiful evolution of life and character can be as slow and meticulous as the growing of hair.

It's true, we do miss a lot living on the East Coast while the majority of our family remains in the West, but life is a train station, and we boarded our train years ago. Though it's taken us far from home, it has also taken us places we would have never otherwise seen. It's showed us things we didn't know existed. It's taught us things we would have never otherwise learned, and there's something equally beautiful and satisfying about that. At this point, our train is still running with a full head of steam. Perhaps one day it will slow down. Who knows - perhaps one day it will return to the West. Until then, we live life to its fullest, keeping the old adage close to our heart: distance makes the heart grow fonder.

All that said, here are some photographs from our most recent trip to Utah, Oregon, and Washington:

Lazy Bloggers

Okay folks. It's been over a month, and we apologize for our cyber-silence, especially to those of you who check our blog like religious zealots and feed on new posts like Judge Judy on a ignorant redneck. Despite the title of this post, we haven't really been lazy at all. Just busy. So instead of overwhelming you with all of it at once, here are three bite-sized posts to fill you in on the month of June. Enjoy, and Stay Classy.

The Big Move

When it was decided that I would be attending N.C. State University, Celeste and I knew that it was time to move. Geographically, it would have been a nightmare trying to commute from Oxford. For those of you who don't know, N.C. State's campus is in the capital city of Raleigh, which is about an hour away from Oxford. But we couldn't really move to Raleigh either, because we're still going to be teaching in Henderson next year, so we needed a midway point. That's when we decided to live in Wake Forest, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh just 30 miles from Henderson. Basically right smack dab in the middle. Basically perfect.

Wake Forest is a beautiful, Southern town, full of charm and history. It's a little bigger than Oxford, but much nicer in comparison - stronger economy, less poverty, and more pizazz. We were thrilled to find out that it had restaurants, malls, gyms, movie theaters, and even a TARGET within a 5-minute drive. We forgot how luxurious life could be!

But the nicest thing about living in Wake Forest is not the city itself, but the house in which we live. We found a perfect little house for rent right in the downtown area. You know, you never realize how awful apartment living is until you leave it for a house. After being in the same complex for the past two years, we thought things were fine there. But after only a week in our new place, it's like the sun is shining on our pale faces for the first time, and the dark clouds of mediocrity have finally parted. Okay, that may be a little dramatic, but I tell you what, it's nice not to share a parking lot, a mailbox, and a dumpster with 400 other people. It's nice to not hear neighbors music through the floors. It's nice to have a yard and a garden, and a driveway. I guess it's the little things. Whatever it is, we love it, and are excited to spend the next several years here. I told Celeste we'll stay as long as our family can fit in it...we're planning on having a lot of dogs.

HOME SWEET HOME

Girls Camp!!!

Mayo Reservoir Lake

The day after returning from Casey's wedding I was whisked away to Mayo Reservoir to spend four days camping with around 60 girls between the ages of 12 and 18. I spend the week avoiding bugs, singing songs, swimming in the lake, hiking and playing games in the moonlight with my 8 Henderson Branch Young Women. I was fortunate to have an energetic assistant and some fun-loving girls.

My Henderson Girls

Being in charge of girls camp for a ward or branch is usually a dreaded calling - filled with months of stress, planning and constant encouragement for sometimes reluctant campers. While I did have some planning, a little stress, and some not so happy campers, I really enjoyed being at camp in charge of my little flock. I was fortunate to know most of my campers fairly well before camp started - with two of them being students of mine all year at school. The younger campers really had a ball and they all had some great experiences that have them looking forward to camp next year!

Paige and Makayla - I taught them both Earth Science and Spanish this year!

This little dog tagged around camp all week

Girls showing their true nature

When the girls lost something, they had to sing this magical song to get it back. Both of our first year campers are in white t-shirts on the left.

Beach Wedding

We met Casey 2 years ago. She and Celeste were both brand new teachers at Northern Vance High School, and both teaching Spanish. Casey also lived in Oxford in our same apartment complex. She and Celeste became quick friends, and I made quick friends with her dog, Mika.

After a few months, Casey introduced us to her beau, a fella named Brent. He was studying education at UNC-Greensboro, training to become and English teacher. Brent and I bonded over sports and films while Celeste and Casey talked about...who knows what. Probably their periods. That's all girls ever talk about.

Anyway, Brent finally proposed, Casey said yes, and the two were married the week after school got out. They chose a beautiful beach destination for the ceremony, and a hip loft in downtown Wilmington for the reception. It was a good time. Wilmington is probably my favorite place in all of North Carolina. Beaches, Civil War forts, and historic Southern mansions that would make Oprah jealous.

Memorial Day Weekend with Mom

For my Mother's birthday in January, my father gave her the gift of a trip to come to North Carolina to visit us! When we heard the news we were elated and over the past few months we worked on arranging the perfect time for her to visit and the details of how to make her stay memorable.

She finally came a few days before Memorial Day to get a firsthand look at our lives in rural North Carolina. We eagerly anticipated her visit and meticulously planned an itinerary to ensure a good time. The day of her flight she called to let us know that the weather in he Midwest was crazy and she was unsure if her connecting flight would leave that evening. There were tornado warnings, intense storms and the airport was looking more and more like a refugee camp. Despite all of that, her flight only arrived 3 hours late. Unfortunately for us, that put her arrival time around 3:00 am. On a school night.

The first few days were dedicated to rest and a tour of Oxford (where we live) and Henderson (where we teach). She enjoyed the Revlon factory store, Cookout, and plenty of time to relax while we were at school. Friday, right after work we headed out on our adventure to the beach. Anticipating overwhelming crowds and horrendous traffic at the more popular beaches of the Outer Banks and Wilmington, we headed to Atlantic beach. It was perfect.

The drive was less that three hours and we traveled on a highway, not a freeway so we passed through beautiful scenery, rural towns, and saw about 15 Bojangles restaurants. Our hotel was brand new - so new in fact that the road to get to the hotel actually passed through a gas station parking lot. No joke.

During our beach weekend we enjoyed fresh seafood, amazing weather and all of the perks of being on the coast. We spent most of Saturday on the beach. The sun was out, the water was warm, the sand was amazing and the waves were just big enough to knock us over. At one point we were all in the water playing in the waves, and we got further and further away from our spot on the sand. As we tried to make our waves back, fighting the waves, mom got knocked down over and over. At one point as she was being knocked and she exclaimed "I give up!!" I walked over, took her hand and we eventually made our way back to where we needed to be. It was hilarious.

Mom and I enjoying the sun at Atlantic Beach

The board walk in Beaufort - tons of sailboats!


Where we enjoyed an amazing dinner overlooking the Harbour


A town just north of Atlantic Beach on the Southern Outer Banks

Downtown New Bern, the town we stayed in

Mom and I after a day at the beach in New Bern

Enjoying the sunset in New Bern

Mom and I throwing the frisbee

Jackson with the "bee"

After traveling home we spent Monday in Durham and enjoyed a Bulls baseball game and walked around Duke Campus.

Mom and I at the Durham Bulls game

It was tough going back to work on Tuesday, but it was nice to come home and still be able to spend an hour with Mom before droppig her off at the airport. Mom, thanks for coming out! We had an amazing time and hope that you'll come back soon!

Staying on the Education Carousel

To be clear: we never meant to become teachers. And to be even more clear: we never meant to stay teachers.

That said, fighting against the will of God or pushing back against the call of destiny is as futile as foolish as backing a gimp donkey at Churchill Downs. The events of the last month are added proof that no plans are concrete until they're concrete, and that all things are subject to the cosmic omniscient will of a Higher Power.

Let me start by saying that I always intended to go to law school. I just seemed destined for it. Growing up, I was very interested in history and politics, and law completes that triangle for many people, including all of my role models: my dad, Abraham Lincoln, and Rod Blagojevich. So going to law school seemed like the natural vehicle of choice to allow me to pursue my passion for civil and human rights. That said, I don’t know that I ever wanted to be a lawyer per se, but rather I wanted to obtain the tools with which I could launch a lifelong fulfilling career in public service. It was never about being a lawyer, but rather having the education and the qualifications to serve my community, my state, or my country beyond the basics of voting and respecting traffic laws.

Then, of course, there came a detour in the form of Teach For America in 2009. I always saw it as a noble form of service that would broaden my experience and help me get into (and save for) law school. Things seemed right on track two years later when the law school application process had begun anew. Teaching was fine, but I was to be a lawyer. I was my father's son, and I meant to follow his path into the legal realm of dusty thick volumes of code, courtrooms, and deposition protocol.

Everything was going according to plan. Then, in mid-February, I was recruited to apply for a competitive principal program at N.C. State University. It's called the Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA), and it puts emerging leaders on the fast track to principalships in the rural counties of North Carolina. It included a full-tuition scholarship, education conferences with travel and lodging, books, and a brand new Macbook. In the arena of the intangibles, it offered a great deal more than that - the opportunity to be a community leader, an agent of social change, and a catalyst for an educational Renaissance in the poverty-stricken Piedmont. But despite all its bells and whistles, I didn't really think much of it at first. Still, just like I did with Teach For America two years ago, I decided to apply as a backup plan. It felt nice to be recruited, and I figured it couldn't hurt to indulge them with an application.

I teetered back and forth between law school and the Master's of School Administration quite a bit over the ensuing months. Each had clear benefits and risks. Each had merits and weaknesses. And, perhaps most importantly, both would allow me to become a valiant public servant. The question was which, if any, was better.

Then, on May 1st, the pendulum really took a swing in the M.S.A. direction. A flurry of events occurred in succession just before that fateful day. I had a dream. I talked with a friend who just graduated from law school, who told me horror stories about thousands of law school graduates having nowhere to work. Then came an e-mail from another friend saying that the job he thought he’d have after law school just got cut, and now he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. More importantly, as Celeste and I prayed about what to do, NELA just kept making more and more sense. The reasons against law school started to pile up, and quickly, like the feverish pounding of keys in a Rachmaninoff piece. Then, as if to provide a peaceful postlude and a fitting conclusion to an especially intense composition, on May 1st, I received notification from the people at N.C. State. Sure enough, I was offered a seat as one of twenty NELA Fellows. By that point, the decision was easy. The choice was clear. Our hearts and minds were at peace with our destiny. We were meant to be teachers.

Shortly after our big decision, some other big things happened in our worlds of education. Celeste took a new job at a charter school called Henderson Collegiate. She was also recruited (yeah, we're kind of a big deal out here), and was offered a post as the new 5th grade science teacher. She's thrilled. You have to see this school to understand why. After two years of fighting kids to do their homework or just sit down in a desk like a normal human, she's going to a college prep charter school where the kids are as eager to learn as they are to eat cupcakes. They're not rich, they're not priveliged, they're not especially gifted - they're just committed to their education and to success, which is a rare trait in Henderson, North Carolina.

To top it all off, just last week, Celeste and I "graduated" from Teach For America. We're now officially alumni - not corps members. Our school year is not yet over, but our commitment to Teach For America is now complete. We had a beautiful little ceremony at Duke University, and I was asked to speak. Celeste is pictured below with her diploma. Fun stuff.

So cheers to education. Now y'all be good and come and visit us out here in North Carolina.