RMS

My roommate Abby is now knee-deep in student teaching in the other school I taught at last year. Watching her wade through overachievers (that's for you, Tim), coaches, Paidea curriculum expectations, and the general "too much to do in too little time" takes me back. Last year at this time, I was two weeks into experiencing the great Rossville Middle, having launched the temporary assignment with mind made firmly up that I was NOT going to be a teacher. Then I was thrust into this artic, asbestos-laced building . . . America's Choice, 2nd grade reading levels, complete lack of social graces, odd odors, and mice. How do I know if a sentence is complete or not? What in the world is a narrative? How do you fit a 120 minute lesson plan into 75? How do you teach someone to read at the 3rd grade level when you are trained starting at a 6th grade level? I started like Abs . . . frustrated, overwhelmed, unsure . . . And, then, 4 months later, my mind was firmly made up. I'd be back.

I'm so glad I did.

bend it like, well, you know

So David Beckham is moving to L.A. And I'm willing to bet significant sums of money that, when he was 22, the thought of a California breeze daily ruffling his perfectly mussed hair was farther from his mind than the thought of a California lifestyle is to a humpback whale. Why star in a Coming to America sequel when you are the god of an entire country? In L.A., the novelty of his accent and his wife's strange fashion will soon wear off, and he will fade into normality, just one of thousands like him.
Why jump for so drastic a change? Why leave so much good behind? Why pursue uncertainty?
Deep beneath all the soccer politics and the draws of LA, I believe that Beckham is moving because of something much more important. I can't pinpoint it yet, but I heard it whispering in my ear this morning as my homeroom furiously scribbled their 3 quarter prompts. I'm halfway through this first year of teaching, supposedly changing lives, and I'm wondering if this is it. "Little c" calling, destiny, life goal . . . approaching is more than a trade or new contract with a 1874909837 million pound signing bonus. It's LA that I see up ahead. And the new contract might be a better move. What helped Beckham figure it out? That's what I want to know.