Quote of the day:
Wherever you think you’re heading right now might turn out to take a completely different path. What looks like an ending might actually be the start of a brand-new beginning. Annie Lennox
A little while ago, my son called me up out of the blue, sounding excited, and told me to find the nearest computer at once. I was just arriving home from a long, energetic walk in the sun, and as tired as I felt, I managed to race upstairs to find my iPad at his bidding. He directed me to the YouTube video of Annie Lennox's keynote address at Berklee College of Music earlier this month. While I realized that she was speaking to undergraduate students, forty years younger than me, I must say that it felt as if she was talking directly to me.
For, June 26 this year marks the twenty fifth anniversary of my immigration to America, and the beginning of an academic journey. With my recent promotion to full professor, it feels as if I have arrived at a destination of sorts. Is the journey over? (I ask myself) Of course it is by no means the end of my career. Indeed, it only enhances all that I have been working towards these past two and a half decades. But, still, it feels like a conclusion of sorts. Perhaps it will be more peaceful emotionally for me, because there will be less need, professionally, to face down my demons of insecurity and lack of confidence.
I think about writing, and am not sure which direction I will take me. One of the things I have learned over the years is not to try and change the whole world all at once, but rather reach one teacher at a time. Each teacher affects the emotional lives of hundreds of children, and that continues to give me hope for the future - bit by bit. Self reflection will always accompany my travels, whichever direction I follow ... but what else? I desire something different to write about. Perhaps I will focus more on my Good Mother blog ... or create a book about cats out of all the blog posts I have written about my feline friends these past eight years. This is a project I have been thinking about taking on since sweet Oscar died. I still sense that somewhere inside me lives a memoir waiting to tumble out. And, have I exhausted all the knowledge and wisdom I have learned and experienced to share with teachers of young children?
So, where to now? I sense exciting times ahead, because I feel able to choose the direction - my new path. And, to that end, maybe I will just hold still awhile, and wait for a muse or a sign ... to send me on my way.
A year ago at Mining Nuggets: The first senior moment in history
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