In a fortnight's time...

...my summer vacation with be over and school will have started again. Teachers do not get paid in summers here in Charlotte and last summer I took a part time job for the sake of warding off boredom-induced insanity. This past summer, I decided to do nothing (in the sense of being gainfully employed). All I wanted to do was take photos, read, do a little writing, and maybe travel a bit to visit some family. I'm grateful to say that I was blessed with the means to check off all of those things. I may not have done as much of each as I wanted to, but I did quite a bit of everything I set out to do. In retrospect, this summer flew by thanks to the wife and I tearing up the road. We visited loved ones, we saw some sights, we became inspired to take a big, bold step towards our future.

There will be a difference this school year. I will be teaching at a new school. I will miss my previous school. I will miss seeing my former students in the hallway. I will miss their greetings, their telling me how much they miss my class. I will miss the way the tell me that 10th grade English is so much easier because of what the learned from myself and their other classmates when they were with me. I will miss mentoring the male students I was complete hard-ass on just one year prior. I will miss a lot of things. But I am also excited about the new beginning. Some people fear and resist change; I thrive and embrace it. I work better on the fly. My ultimate goal is to match my performance at my previous school where, on average, 80% of the students I taught passed the state assessment in English.

These pictures are a few snapshots from my last day at my former school. I hope that the carried something away from my class that will aide them in their life journeys. I know I took a lot from them. This year is going to be about making the most of limited time. My wife and I have plans to move to Chicago next summer. We will make our last year in Charlotte even better than the first two combined. But let's not look past the now. I still have some time to myself and I'm going to make the most of it. I'm going to spend a lot of that time reflecting on the things gained from these past two months and marvel at how the randomness of life is not that random at all. Hindsight is not the only thing that's always 20/20. I see the future clearly and I am using the now to keep it in my scopes.