I know I haven't been blogging as much as I told people I would or as often as I planned to before I moved to Brooklyn over 2 months ago. That bothered me for a while, but I'm starting to care less and less.
Because blogging about my life is not what is important and it's not my top priority on a daily basis. High on that list are lesson plans, making sure all my students did their homework, spending genuine, quality time with my fellow community mates, exploring Brooklyn and New York, reading books, not missing my morning train, laughing with co-workers, cooking, cleaning, not cleaning, learning how to be a better teacher, pondering the effectiveness of non-profit work, contemplating how to be a real force for social change in society ... basically, it's all about living life.
We don't have internet at our house because we made the conscious decision not to get it - as a community, we are trying to find ways to be more present to one another and embrace the intentionality that JVC encourages for us. No internet, very basic and spotty cable, a room filled with books and five wonderful roommates make for one of the most comfortable and welcoming living environments I have ever experienced.
In the last month, I have read five books just for fun, not counting the two I have read with my sixth grade reading class. That's more books than I read for fun in the six months before I made the move to the Big Apple.
Today, I was walking through the halls of my school on my way to teach my first class of the day. For some reason, the sunlight seemed brighter and richer than it has in a while (I'm probably exaggerating, but that's genuinely what it looked like). Out the windows as I walk up the stairs, there is a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline, and today it was almost shining gold in the sunlight. I could hear my co-workers teaching their respective classes, and peeked in a couple doors to see students reading aloud with one another, working hard on math problems and adventuring their way through a science lab. It was one of those moments where I couldn't help but smile to myself because I knew, with complete certainty, that there was no other place in the world that I should have been at that moment.
Teaching is not always so wonderful. There are days when I wish I don't have to struggle my way through a 45-minute lesson with what appears to be the east attentive group of eleven-year-olds to ever exist, but I remind myself that even a failed lesson is nothing more than a learning experience. I am right where I am supposed to be, struggling, loving and living my way through life, and I honestly do not think I could be any happier with my life than I am at this moment.