On learning and life

I’m sitting on my last flight of the day, headed home to Auburn, attempting to sleep but awash with thoughts and emotions.  This is my last flight going in to SeaTac for a while, but not my last trip west.  Next time I fly, I’ll be headed so far west that they call it the Far East; so far west that I cross the International Date Line.  Next time I fly, I’ll be headed to yet another new home.

The last two weeks have been so much better than I could have hoped for.  Instead of being bored out of my mind learning things that I already knew, I was introduced to ideas that I may have been familiar with but that I could see in a new light.  I was given the opportunity to look back at who I am, a Third Culture Kid, with a set of skills and issues that is unlike any other labeled demographic.  I was also given the opportunity to consider how my role as an educator will affect the TCKs that I have an opportunity to work with in the next few years.   I was able to look back on the people that have impacted my life; to consider my mentors along the way and to derive from that an idea of who I’d like to be for my students.  Will I be the next Miss Lori and lead the students that I interact with to a deeper love for life and the unique journey that we’re all on?  Will I inspire like Bannister or Waggy-G?  I realize that these names and nicknames mean nothing to most of you, but for those that do recognize them, you know the big shoes that loom before me to fill.  And yet, I realize that the only shoes I need to fill are the ones set before me.  I don’t need to be anyone but me.  Simultaneously comforting and terrifying, isn’t it?

And now the tricky bit of the transition process: being thrilled for what’s coming but having to write the final pages of the chapter that I’ve been loving for the past few years.  As I start to say goodbye and mourn the loss of a home (that being more than just a place: instead it’s a community of friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, and so much more), I can’t help but question why I’m going.  What would possess me to leave something so good behind?  Why would I give up a place that I love where I have been growing solid roots?  Why would I leave a group of friends that means the world to me?  Why would I ever want to say goodbye?  Good questions, and I doubt that I have an answer that would satisfy all of you, but I’m excited for this new adventure and know that it is where I am supposed to be.

Location: Somewhere between Chicago and Seattle

Local Time (GMT-5): 9:10 p.m. (7/6/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 7:10 p.m. (7/6/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 10:10 a.m. (7/7/2012)