The Joy Narrative - Day 3

Hot chocolate, an hour of free time, and a friend. 

Yesterday I had the chance to catch up with a friend.  LV and I went to grad school together, but we also work together now.  We share an office.  Simply because we share an office doesn't mean that we have a lot of time to catch up.  Quite the opposite in fact.

Somehow yesterday provided us the unique opportunity of an hour.  When I realized that LV and I had some free time AT the same time, I put my grading down.  She asked if I wanted a cup of hot chocolate as she was making some for herself and I agreed.  The day yesterday was sunny and cool outside our office window.  It's fall here in Forest Grove and the trees on campus were celebrating with a fireworks display of yellow, orange and red. 

I followed LV down the hall to the teacher's lounge with my travel mug.  As we waited for her plug-in kettle to warm up, we began talking about our classes and our students.  The dialogue began as it usually does, a couple of complaints about too many papers, not enough thought, etc.  But because we had the space of an hour, we slipped deeper into the conversation than we normally do.  We found ourselves talking about the intent of education and the necessity for new models, new paradigms that rely on creative thinking rather than standardized testing.  It was one of those conversations that is fueled by the passions, that is a true call and answer, a meeting of the minds and I found myself "high" from it.  Maybe it was the hot chocolate.  Whose to say?

We didn't necessarily solve anything through our discussion, but we rediscovered something about why we teach, about why we love it, and why it is important, and the process elicited a joyful sigh.  LV soon had to depart and she made her way out of the building.

I was left alone with my reflections and I felt good about myself, about my place in the world, in my work, and what I give to my students.  I put on my iPod, closed my office door, and danced a little bit before I sat down to grade the rest of my papers.  I found that they went quickly and I was more readily able to see the potential nestled in their thinking/writing. 

Hot chocolate, an hour of free time, and a good friend altered my perspective, shifted my mood, lifted me up a little bit.  It's what friends are supposed to do.  I simply hope that as LV walked out of Berglund that day, weighted down with her baskets full of papers, that the load felt light and a song bounced around the back of her head.