Back

This business we have of sending our precious people back into the world each fall deserves documentation. If you're anything like me, the whole process makes us a little raw; we want them to go and we don't want them to go. We are excited to take them on their first day, and when we walk away alone it's with a heavier step. Lending them to the world for molding and affecting makes me revel then choke up.

They, on the other hand, do nothing but cheer. Luckily I have two girls that like school and are glad to be back with friends learning every day.

I, too, am going back. Just today I spent one hour and fifteen minutes of my morning in a third grade class, a black composition notebook to write in, a sea of faces looking my way when, red faced, I introduced myself, (Finally, I get to be Ms. Tia). I have my official badge and the title in the school handbook totes me as a Reading Specialist. I love it because I am unburdened by my own classroom. I have a new perspective: that this is important, but this isn't EVERYTHING. This is one thing I get to enjoy and work at, then there's home and my family. This job is adding great balance to my life. It's also giving me an identity outside home. I really like my co-workers, too.

In the first grade today their teacher was taking roll. Instead of saying, "Here," she taught them to answer her with the phrase, "I can do anything."

The year ahead of me is going to be great.