Steven Easton

I Am Done

Thursday, May 30

I am done. Two years with that school, the same amount of time our students have to spend in that building. Totally worth it because it brought me up to Iowa, but I'm ready for another change of scenery. I'm ready to be a married man with a new job. My best days are only ahead of me.

This is the seventh month I've written this blog, and tomorrow with be last entry, at least for a long while. I may come back in five years, telling you about the two more kids and dog we'll have. Hopefully, I'll still be teaching. Planning out my life now is really a waste of time, but in theory, that's what my life could look like in five years; we'll see.

24-year-old me was a lot different than 29-year-old me, and I hope 34-year-old me is a lot different than 29-year-old me. 

Today as I was packing up my things, Keegan, the history teacher on my team came into my classroom. Keegan is the kind of guy who cares more about his appearance than anything else, but he's a nice dude most of the time. He just needs to put less gel in his hair, and then maybe, he'd find himself a girl.

"Hey, man." I was putting books into a box as neatly as I could. "What's up?"

"You done after today?" We could choose if we wanted to start earlier, so we'd get done earlier.

"I am." 

"Good for you, man. I'm excited for you."

"Well, thank you." That box was now filled up, so I pushed it aside to start on another one. 

"Are you ready to teach high school?"

"Oh, yeah, I think so. That was what I wanted to do originally in Alabama, but they needed middle school teachers more."

"What did Jen say when you told her you were leaving?"

"She wasn't overly happy." I paused. "I am going to miss you guys though."

"If your aunt wasn't the principal, would you have wanted to stay?"

Thinking about this for a moment, I looked at him. "No, honestly, I want to work with older kids. Middle schoolers are vulnerable in their own way, but high schoolers are at the age where they are beginning to make their own decisions, and I want to help students navigate that time in their lives. Teaching is much more than teaching English or History; it's about teaching our kids how to live their lives in a healthy, not destructive way."

"What do you believe that looks like?"

"I think it means teaching our students about how to overcome hard things. Like, on the academic level, learning about English and History is great and all, but teaching kids how to wing that study guide when it doesn't make sense, or push through reading pages of textbooks in high school, even though it sucks, is important because in life, sometimes taxes don't make sense. Sometimes our jobs require us to do things that are supposed to help us, but never actually do."

"But if that's the case, shouldn't we we learn how to innovate our jobs, so we don't have to waste our time?"

"In theory, yes, but realistically, we need to try different things to see what does and doesn't work for us. Some kids read textbooks, and it goes in one ear out the other, but for others, it's the only way they can learn." 

"Right, but the social aspect of school is as equally as important."

"Yeah, I mean, we throw a bunch of kids together, and they begin to learn how to interact with each other. Isn't it funny how in kindergarten, one kid will ask another kid, 'Hey, wanna be best friends?' Next thing ya know, they're best friends for years. In middle school, everyone's trying to just not embarrass themselves in front of each other. In high school, most kids have decided what they want to act like. They either care about what other people about them or they don't. I've found the people who stay in what would be known as the 'popular group' don't change the world. They just have boring jobs with boring lives. What's the point of that?"

"I was popular group," Keegan confessed. "And it cost me my college scholarship because I got drunk one night and fell off a balcony. I just wanted to be cool. That changed everything."

"Our mistakes don't define us, but they shape us."

"Yeah, like how I have a slight limp." He gave me a small smile. "I know you'll go on to do great things."

"Thank you."