Roots

Hello blogger friends... I hope you still check my blog even though I've been MIA. Sorry about that. Let's just say this is the first time in about a month I've had ten minutes to do something "extra" like blog. I left NYC on July 29th after lots of late night paper writing and reading. I flew to Durham for 24 hours... just enough time to unpack, do laundry, and re-pack. Then I flew to Houston for my first week of work with teachers who came back August 1st. Although I was excited about seeing everyone, I was exhausted. I kind of wanted to curl up in bed and wish all of my responsibilities away. Alas, that was not an option. To Houston I went.

Let me just preface by saying that I have not really missed Houston. I mean, Houston is great and everything... but seeing North Carolina has given me a whole new perspective. Were you to ask me if I missed Texas, I would have said I miss our families and I miss Mexican food, but that's about it. Weather? No thanks. The city of Humble? Not so much. Traffic? I can do without it. You get the picture. So I was thinking I would go to Houston, put my nose to the grindstone, get it done, and think the whole time about coming back to my true love - NC. Well it didn't really happen that way.

On Monday morning, I got up super early, hopped in the 1995 white Mercury with blue leather interior (borrowed from my in-laws for the week), and headed up 59 to begin my week of work. Monday was going to be a work day for me to prepare for all the PD I was giving during the week, so I chose to work at the North Central campus... my home for the last 5 years. It was so strange because I had been gone for months, and my mind knew that I had completely moved across the country, but for all intents and purposes, it felt like a normal day. As I got off the Hardy Toll Road and went down Aldine Westfield, I saw the things I've seen every day for five years. I saw the Iglesia Cristiana, a random wild dog, the Taqueria Lupita, the billboard for "Planos y Permisos", the good old Aldine ISD "Compass" school, and my favorite longhorn steer across the street from YES Prep NC. Yep, definitely back in Texas, I thought. I pulled into the familiar parking lot feeling nothing was the same, yet everything was the same. I pulled into my normal parking spot when it happened.

As soon as I put the car in park, a wave of emotion passed over me. It was one of those feelings that began in the pit of my stomach, tightened my throat, and before you knew it, I was crying. Like many, many tears spilling down my face uncontrollably and unexpectedly. I really am not sure where the emotion came from or why I was crying - I wasn't necessarily sad or happy, but maybe weird combo of both. Or maybe I was just exhausted.

Instead of jumping out of the car, I sat for a few minutes and cried and thought. I was mourning my old job and my old life. I'm not really a teacher at any campus anymore. I'm not going to have a room full of seventh graders. My friendships won't be the same since I won't see people everyday. But then with the sadness, there was a sense of gratitude and awe and even joy that my life has changed so much, but I am still a "YES Prep person" and still have an amazing job. I sat there and remembered the first time I pulled up to the YES Prep warehouse seven years ago in the Fifth Ward. Since then, YES has been woven into the very fabric of who I am and what I do. And it feels good. Praise God for letting me stay connected even from afar. I know that Houston and YES will always be my home. I realize just how deep my roots are in Texas, swirling and twisting and encircling people and places and memories that make up "me". They anchor me.

When I finished crying, I took a deep breath and went inside. It felt great. It was a wonderful week. So good to see everyone. We welcomed a TON of new teachers to our ELA team - lots of Aggies - class of '11. I mean, are you kidding me?! So young! We have 70 teachers on the middle school ELA team this year, so there will be no shortage of work to do to support everyone. My team & I worked really hard over the summer, and that work paid off and resulted in a fantastic first week back.

Yes, North Carolina has (many) perks, but my roots are in Texas, and it will always be home.