Let's talk a little bit more about the High School Math position at Robert E. Lee High School that I interviewed for on Friday. Before the interview I was talking to someone who had worked at LHS for 4 years in the early 2000's. She informed me that the principal would probably show up in jeans and a button-up. Sure enough he did. I was pretty excited to see such a casual personality with this principal, Mr. Amstutz, because that fits me very well. I also was talking to many other 2006 corps members who praised LHS because of it's principal, atmosphere, and that there was a good TFA support system in place there. According to Mr. Amstutz, there were approximately 20-25 TFA 2006 corps members or alumni that worked within LHS. Wow!! Well my faith was telling me that there was no way I could not get this job because it sounded so perfect. This helped me greatly to keep myself calm. As you can see from the title of this post I was offered the job on the spot and of course I accepted! The demographics of the school are as follows: 74% Hispanic 20% African American 5% Asian 4% White and 92% are free or reduced lunch. I am so excited to be working with these different cultures!
I flew back Friday night for graduation on which being held on Saturday. I got in about 10 and then pretty much went straight to Christy's to hang out one last Friday night. Of course we got Papa Dino's infamous cheese fries at about 1:30AM. MMMMM Yum! This was the very last time I would get cheese fries as a college student. :-( I then had to get up for graduation at 7:00 because we had to be ready and there by 8:30. Graduation was slightly boring and lasted about 2.5 hours with a lot of bad name reading and a not so fantastic speech by Oscar Robertson. They made a video to forever idolize the Big "O" and all his accomplishments. I think our graduation turned into an Oscar celebration. Last night after all the exciting graduation festivities I had to say goodbye to my family and friends for real this time. No more "I'm leaving...no wait I'm back" garbage. This time I was leaving for good and I had no idea when I would see everyone again. Hopefully I will be able to come back in December for Christmas. Leaving was pretty darn hard and I ended up getting very teary eyed. It happens.
Now on to this very cool story. Or at least I think it's pretty cool. So my plane's departure time was 9 AM this morning and Dave got me to the airport at about 7:45 so I had plenty of time to get checked in and get to the Delta Terminal C which many know is not really connected to the other terminals and you have to take a bus over to it. I thought it would be smart to check my bags outside so that I could get through everything quicker. I ended up getting in a line with the slowest human being in the world. I sat in his line for about 35 minutes watching people in other lines fly through their lines. I just kept thinking to myself that if I stuck it out I would be fine and I didn't really want to lug my 2 huge bags, one weighing 46 lbs and the other 64 lbs, and my smaller bag over to the another kiosk. Well I actually ended up going to a different kiosk because all of them were empty and I finally got checked in at 8:20 AM. So I'm freaking out a little bit and start running to security and end up finding it a pretty long line. My line seems to be going slow and when I was just about to send my bag through the line stopped for what felt like 5 min. My bag then goes through and of course I didn't do everything thing completely right and they want to scan it again. OK well they scan it again and then they want to search it. Apparently you are not only supposed to put the less than 3.* ounce bottle of liquid in a baggie but you also have to take it out of your bag so it is visible. Also they couldn't see through this little clock that I got as a gift from tribunal and they felt it was necessary to take chemical bomb tests on. By the time I got through security it was now like 8:42 and I'm freakin out even more. I book it to the tram that takes you to terminal B. Then I run up the escalator to the terminal C bus. I get to terminal C and as I am walking into the gate area I hear them doing a last call for my flight! This is the latest I have ever been for a flight. I seriously almost missed it but I didn't.
Continuing my story... I sat down in my seat on the airplane and saw that the lady next to me was sleeping which was good because I did not want to talk because I had to read/sleep. Well she opened her eyes, noticed my new TFA shirt and asked about the program. I figured I would just have to tell her a little about it and that would be it. Well she was very inquisitive and I began to tell her about why I as an engineer was doing this program. Turns out she is a former teacher who agrees with most if not all of TFA's core values. She also knows my 8th grade science teacher through this program she coordinates in many high schools throughout Ohio. Everything she talked about I was very interested in and she seemed very interested in everything I had to stay. Our conversation went from the philosophy of education to our similar faith beliefs to my relationship with Danielle and relationships in general. It was just so amazing that I was sitting next to a woman that had very similar views on things and loved the Lord as I do. Again I feel like God placed her there for a reason. I got her contact information and I will be definitely using her as a resource in education. I told her about how God has been blessing my life in very visible ways in the past year and she was telling me about how she has been blessed in her lifetime. She leads mission trips to Jamaica and her church, Crossroads, is heavily involved serving the people in Over the Rhine and South Africa. What makes things even crazier is that she was telling me how she didn't even have a seat when she checked in. They just "randomly" gave her the seat next to me. So our conversation lasted the entire 2.5 hour flight and in the middle of it I was thought about telling her about the book "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne because it would explain a little of why I wanted to live in community with my students' families. Well towards the end of the flight she wanted to give me a book that she thought I would like based on what I had been talking to her about. Guess what! It was "Irresistible Revolution". I got so excited and I told her that the book would change her life or at least it makes you want to just sell everything you own and go live in community with the poor and share all resources. She was about 1/4 of the way through and wanted to give it to me. I am very glad that I have read it because this will now give her a chance to finish it. One last blessing I saw from this encounter was that I was worried about getting my bags from baggage claim to the shuttle. Well she was very willing to help out and I was able to get everything to my car very smoothly. The words I am writing cannot convey enough how awesome this experience was. I felt God so much in this encounter it was ridiculous and my eyes welled up when I thought about the greatness God was revealing to me. Wow!
Well now I am at institute in Moody Towers at University of Houston and in about 4.5 hours I will be getting up for breakfast and getting ready for my first day of summer school. We are not teaching this week but we have alot of learning to do before next week. This should be a very interesting week and I am looking forward to every minute of it. I know that God will provide a very exciting and enriching experience and will work through all of us to help close the achievement gap. We will see how things go. Until next time.
Peace,
MO
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2 comments:
Hey Mike, congratulations on the job. Sounds like a great place for you to be.
I completely agree with you on Shane's book. It has had a similar effect on me, and is one of several things that have caused me to rethink my faith over the last year or so. It's great to see you have the courage to take a step of faith in response to it.
Praying for you!
wow! What a great story about the plane ride! God is so cool.
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