Hey All.

I know that you’ve noticed I haven’t posted in a few days; it’s simply because I’ve been in a funky cloud of emotions, and none of them very pretty for sharing.  This is our last week on St. Paul Island, and today is the last day of school.  We are scheduled for this afternoon’s flight back to Anchorage, and then onto Michigan by Saturday afternoon.  It’s been an incredibly difficult time, what with saying goodbyes, physically preparing to leave by cleaning, shipping, and packing, trying not to run screaming to our principal, begging for our jobs back because we’ve made a huge mistake by leaving, keeping perspectives as they should be, and a lot of deep breathing.

I’m looking at my empty classroom now, all rearranged and “Mrs. Ferrari” has been stripped from the walls.  There is no more pieces of me that made this my classroom.  And that’s how it should be, I suppose.  I didn’t want reminders of the previous teacher; I had big enough shoes to fill by simply convincing my students that it would be, if not better, at least ok that I was here, and she was not.  I hope that my students open themselves up to that in the fall once again.

So what will I be taking with me from this experience?  So many things.  More than one person should be allowed.

The people of the island remind me about caring about one another:

The beauty in nature:

It’s ok to take  chances.  Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t’ see the whole staircase.