Lasts

This year has been full of them.

Some of them are good....
As in...This spring was the LAST time I had to drive through parent pick-up/drop off line at the freshman building.

Can I get an A-Men and a Hallelujah!



This August was the LAST time I had to drive the children to school in the morning or worry about pick-up schedules in the afternoon.

Woot!

Some of them are bitter-sweet....

Our son ran his last high school cross country race yesterday.
We used the last jar of pumpkin from the garden this week.
We paid our last car insurance bill with only adult drivers last month.




Some of them are hard.


I taught my last lesson in the one room school house this week.

Tomorrow I will "chaperone" my last 1875 baseball game.

Next week I will spend one last day in Greteman's General Store.




If you had asked me three months ago, I wouldn't have had any idea that October would be the month of "lasts".
But things have happened rather quickly.


My husband got a job that is perfect for him, that he wasn't even really looking for.
Total time from first inquiry to official job offer....5 weeks.

We put our house on the market.
Total time from official posting to accepting an offer.....6 days


We reserved a moving truck.
Total time to pack, move a child in with friends to finish their Sr. year in IA, get a second child set up in their new school, find a new job (ugh...resumes and cover letters), say goodbyes and move to Maine.......14 days.

I'm excited about the move.  I just wish I could take Iowa with me.

Cause while lasts are not my favorite, they do make me so grateful for all the firsts that we have had over the previous 6 and 1/2 year in this state.
First State Fair, First Caucus, First trip to Fareway, First ICubs game, First cookstove meal, First cow milking, First petticoat...….

And I hope that many of you will make your first trip to New England to visit, for your first taste of lobster, a first walk on the beach, a first bowl of real clam chowder (with NO tomatoes) a first Red Sox game and a first trip to Acadia National Park to see the sun rise on the first point of the United States for the day.

Because while lasts can be difficult, they hopefully mean that some exciting firsts are just around the corner....
and I hope I didn't miss the class on that.

Welcome to Iowa!

I may have mentioned, once or twice, that I am not from around here...…
That things like State Fairs, and crop reports, and weather(tornado) conditions and mid-west life in general are a cultural shift from my earlier years spent living in Massachusetts.  It has been a pleasant learning curve to adjust to a life of "Iowa Nice", low cost of living, and a grocery store chain that still has a butcher that will cut your meat to order.  I could probably do without the -20 temps in the winter and the 105-heat-index-for two.straight.weeks. temps, but as someone once said....It's not Heaven....it's Iowa.

In my current position as a museum professional, I have the opportunity to interact with guests from all around the world.  People from India, Pakistan, China, Japan, France, Germany...….have all meandered their way through 300 years of Iowa's agricultural heritage.  We have discussed the similarities and differences of farming and technology in our respective countries.   We have enjoyed learning new things about new-to-us cultures.   I have become entranced with Iowa life, and feel like I have been here long enough to  be able to say "Welcome to Iowa" to those who are newer to the state than I.  It's fun greeting people and assuring them that while Iowa may be new and different from the culture they left behind, it is well worth their time to settle in and make this their new home.


I have created a small check list of things to recommend to future Iowegians :)
Even if you don't participate in them, it is nice to know what they are so you can follow along in a conversation with the "locals".


In reverse order...
10) Maid Rites

9) Detasseling Corn

8) how to use a 4-way intersection with stop signs

7) bacon

6) E85

5) Cyclones vs Hawkeyes

4) Caucus season

3) RAGBRAI

2) Dyersville

1) The State Fair

I may or may not geek out over this list when meeting new transplants to the state.

Okay....I do.....geek out....more than a little...…

But that didn't seem to phase the young couple that found themselves in 1875 Iowa this past Saturday.  After passing a pleasant few minutes discussing all things medicinal in the Victorian Era, we discovered that we were from the same part of the world...and had experienced some of the same cultural shifts.   They had already started on the recommendation list....and had already prepped for the top 3!

After spending a few moments describing all the glorious things that are the Iowa State Fair and why it was so important for them to see the Butter Cow, I was able to leave them with this small bit of wisdom....


Iowa is a great place to work and live.....especially now that we run on Dunkin....


The look of relief on their face was almost comical.


Because while I didn't miss the class on all the things that make this place close to Heaven, I also didn't miss the class on comfort foods and having a small link to your former home.....


Welcome to Iowa, former New Englanders.....relax and have some coffee :)

April 20.....before and after Columbine

OK, I'll admit it.    I'm from the age of dinosaurs.  Old as dirt.  Maybe even pre-historic.

I know this because I looked at today's date, listened to the news on the radio and realized:

I remember teaching before and after Columbine.  

My student teaching practicum involved learning the emergency procedure for fire drills.  Just fire drills.  We did them once a semester.

For my first few teaching jobs, I'm not even sure if the front or side  doors were locked during school hours.

And then Columbine happened. And things changed.

Locked doors, lock-down drills, check-in policies, evacuation procedures....our new normal. Multiple times a year.

Things you never found in your college curriculum and training classes were now part of your  professional duties.

Such as:
Asking the school board to find enough money to re-do the locks on classroom doors because your current lock could only be turned from the outside, with a key.

Hearing an alert tone on the intercom and your first thought being...."How many students can I fit out the window before someone makes it into my classroom?"

Walking into work and thinking..."Hmmm, I wonder if today is the day...."    Every. Day.

And now, as a parent, making sure my own children understand their school's active shooter response.

It feels terrifying and hopeless to get up, the day after a school shooting, and drop your own flesh and blood off at a school building.  To watch them walk away from you and into a "soft target".   Sometimes it makes me want to go back to teaching, because if something happened, I would at least be in the building with them, and not one of those parents on the other side of the police line, waiting for some small bit of information.

Because this is life after Columbine, and Sandy Hook, and.....and......and......

There are days when it feels so dark for this generation.

But there is a glimmer of hope.  And I was honored to see it last night.

A group of freshman in our district presented their Humanities projects on Conflict Resolution.
They lead presentations and discussions on  everything from "How to handle conflict on Social Media", to the current events on the South China Sea, The Ukraine and Russia, The Israel/Palestine conflict, and how conflict in other countries influences  people to come to the United States.
It wasn't just the topics presented, it was the presenters themselves.  Freshmen, who can barely drive a car, were driving well researched conversations with their adult audiences.  They could even find The Ukraine on a world map.  They challenged the adults in their lives to be more informed about world and local issues.  They made us talk to each other about how we, personally, handle conflict in our own lives.  And one student spoke about his desire to return to his birth country to share the peace of Christ, which, despite being what could get him killed, could also be what brings an end to conflict in his home land.

I teared up a bit on the ride home telling my daughter how proud I was of her and her classmates.
Her response: "Yeah, sometimes I think people forget how much teenagers actually know. They should listen to us more often.  Things would get done."

Oh, the naivete of youth ..... and..... oh, the pain of my stepped-on toes.

April is an odd month.   It marks the beginning of so much conflict in world history.  Including two of our own country's wars for freedom.  Which were fought with guns.  Which brings me to today.  The day that marks 19 years of life after Columbine, and a national student walk-out.

No, not all of the students fully understand the issues.  Some may think this is just a way to get out of class for a few minutes.  Some, however,  may have done more research than most adults and have a future in law school or Congress.   Remember what you were like in high school?

Regardless of where you stand on the issues they are protesting, remember life before Columbine and listen with patience.

Because their school day reality is very different from when this dinosaur was a student.

 I hope I didn't miss the class on this one.  Because while I was not in Colorado 19 years ago, I was in a school, and class has never been the same.