Reflection on the First Day of School

I was so nervous today...I couldn't even sleep last night, well at least not very well.  But really the day flew by.  I mean once 12:00 hit, that is!  I always forget what it is like at the beginning of the school year.  Getting the procedures and expectations down.  Making sure that all the routines are in place.  I mean we literally spent 10 minutes walking to every place that we needed to go.  We started getting ready to go home at 2:05, and before I knew it, the time was 2:30 and it was time to go home.  Seriously...crazy day.  

I am so thankful for my 22 students, 18 of which showed up!  I am thankful that we made it through the first day, without too much drama.  I mean they are chatty that is for sure, but for the beginning of the school year, it was really not that bad at all.  

I still had these unreal moments today...I am really here teaching these kids.  I am really in this place, living life and doing what I can to get through the day.  Sometimes I make it seem glamourous and when I am lounging at the mall, eating Pinkberry across from Gucci..well it does seem pretty glamourous.  But then I think about the way that some of these kids are growing up.  Not really knowing their parents, being raised by nannies, and I think that I am so thankful that was never my life.  I am thankful that I was born in America, that I can go back there one day and that I have the freedom I do.  

I do want to go back to America one day...maybe even Missouri...but for now this is my home and I have to make the most of it.  I have to plant myself here for a little while, and try to make the best difference that I can.  

First Day of School...September 8, 2013