Not Big Enough

I did not get a big enough van for the trip to join the 2014 State Teachers of the Year in Washington, D.C. It can hold all the luggage and my family just fine, but there are others going on this trip, and I don't think they will all fit.

There are Ann Roberson, Zelda Everbach, Maxine Dersch, Debbie Kimeck, Marcia Austin, Don Dewey, Neal Lang, and Irv Goldstein along with Art Von Worder, Bill Chilton, and Gene Miller.  Those are Kindergarten through 6th grade teachers and principals.

Somehow I am going to have to find room for Lois Jones, Carl Miles, Dale Richmer, Lester Blank, Chaz Wolf, Sonny Wright, Bob Holman, Bob Jones, Barbara Cannon, Fred Barnes, Kathy Smith, Steve McKinley, Vern Ratliff, Connie Fleshman, Ron Silver, Doug Bierman, Keith Hofmeister, Harry Shields, and Skip Ellmers from Hazelwood Junior High.

It is probably going to get a bit cramped when Sam Christie, Jack Smith, Jack Ford, Jim Dickman, Craig Flora, John Richardson, David Runge, Linda DeRungs, Gary Austin, Evelyn Cooper, Dick Wardell, Alice Ranck, Marcene Holverson, Dave Grosheider, Bob Duesch, Dennis Renshaw, and Dick Flatt try to squeeze in from New Albany High School.

I may may have to use the luggage rack on top for all my undergraduate professors from Indiana University and my graduate professors from The University of Texas, and I have no idea where to put my colleagues from King Middle School in Kansas City, Missouri; the ones from L.B.J. High School in Austin, Texas; or my current teaching friends from North Central High School and the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Perhaps I will have to add a sidecar for the countless teaching friends I have met at conferences, the ones I have come to know via social media, and people who have supported me on this incredible journey, for you see, every single educator I have ever known has had a hand in my being able to represent my state as the 2014 Indiana Teacher of the Year.

Yeah, I should have gotten a bigger van.