Homecoming

How is it possible to feel as if it is homecoming week when you see people you just met three months ago?  When I saw Monica Washington (TXTOY) at The Fairfax on Embassy Row upon arriving in Washington, D.C., we hugged and immediately introduced each other to our families.  Pam Reilly (ILTOY) was next for a hug and introduction to her husband.  Then it was Darleen Sutton (SCTOY), Gary Abud (MITOY), Jane McMahon (WITOY), and Ryan Devlin (PATOY).  Hugs, smiles, and welcomes abounded as if we had grown up together.  How is that possible?

This is the kind of thing that happens whenever teachers get together.  The shared passion for that most human and humane of enterprises we call education unites people and stokes fires of creativity, leadership, and energy to white-hot intensity.  We may only have met in January, but we are kindred spirits, and that makes us family.

More posts will follow when as events really get underway, but for now, it is back to homecoming!

(Our son, Austin; our daughter, Olivia; and the true Indiana Teacher of the Year, my wife, Melissa.  As I said in my remarks at the INTOY award dinner, "she's so conjunctive to my life and soul that as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her."  Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 7)