"And I've rambled on about me..."

 As 2012 drew to a close, I found myself (reflective by nature) more reflective than normal. My life, so different than it was at the end of 2011, stands to change even more in 2013. I couldn’t help but consider the end of 2011: frustration at the lack of job prospects, chafing at continuing to live at home and not being able to stand on my own two feet, the rut of routine.

January 1, 2013 finds me both literally and figuratively in a different place. No longer a resident of the South Jersey I love so much, I hang my hat now in Bullhead City. A trade for the different, if there ever was one. January 1, 2013 finds me teaching 7^th graders, but currently on break, sitting in my parents’ kitchen, the room swimming with the smells of garlic and soy sauce, comfortable as it ever was. January 1, 2013 finds me secure and confident that I know where my (professional, at least) life will take me until the beginning of June. Past that, who knows? I know that school will end in June and that at some point this summer I will be on the Outer Banks with the family and in Rhode Island with the youth group. I know that at some point this summer I will become a squatter in Eric’s home. I know that at some point this summer, I’ll have a plan for the fall. I am hoping for one long before then, being who I am, but have begrudgingly accepted the fact that there is just no way to know where I go from here right now.

2012 saw changes for the good…new job, new friends, new self confidence and awareness, renewed joy in the holidays and the little things that make New Jersey my home. 2013 will begin with changes…Colleen coming west for ? days/weeks/months. The aforementioned challenge of deciding where to be and what to do next (hoping I have a decision to make, and that I can make the right one). I’ve made changes for the better, and here’s to hoping that I can set my sights on bigger and better and continue to sand the rough edges of change already begun. Here’s to hoping that I can be as positive about the advancement and adjustments on December 31, 2013 as I am right now about the way 2012 treated me.

For the second year in a row I begin with questions about where my future will take me, although this year with more confidence that I can take whatever it may be in stride, or at least have the strength to bear myself back on course, or change course. At the dawn of 2012, I felt the weight of inactivity, the strain of a cloudy future. In 2013, my future is no clearer, but the experience of driving 2500 miles, setting up a life, and surviving the first five months tells me I have the strength to pull off whatever it may be. The unending love and support from friends and family, new and old, tells me I have the support system, too.

So here’s to you, 2013. I hope to look back 365 days from now and say that I’m a better man, a better friend, a better teacher, a better student, a better brother, a better son, a better uncle, a better grandson, a better nephew, and a better cousin. I hope to look back at the halfway point and say I’ve done a service for my students, taught them not just the Essential Standards but to think for themselves, taught them not to pass a test but how to learn, taught them that their final score is not the important part, but the knowledge they gain and how they apply it makes all the difference in the world.