This week I have felt different. I have taught with a bit more gusto, I have smiled and hugged my kids harder, and I have a bit of a spring in my step.
Lovwee will do that to ya.
This past weekend I spent 3 days with my best "gal-entines."
It's hard to believe that 5 years ago (around this time, too!) I was scrambling to make copies of my resume, buying a bearable black pantsuit/blazer combo from Ann Taylor Loft, and had no idea where my teaching journey would take me. Let alone if it would last more than a year.
They say that one-in-five teachers makes it out of their fifth year, and I'm one shy of turning that statistic around. I do have to say I've been blessed with special administrators, feel fortunate to have landed on the campuses I've been assigned to/hired by, and feel fortunate to have some "teacher" in my blood - as big sister to 3, daughter of two professors (even if they didn't realize it until later in life) and have an incredible second-grade-teacher-Tia who have set some good examples and given me incredible experience.
However, I think I have two very special ladies to TRULY thank.
We don't visit that often, we don't even always stick to our phone dates, or might reply late to group emails....but these two women are my "reason," my inspiration, the fuel in my fire.
I flew to Indiana this past weekend in desperate need of some girl-time. Let's just say,...February is a deceptive month at times. Sure, it's full of love, "short and sweet," but it also feels long, cold, and dark when you are SO mentally prepared for a new season to spring up (pun intended!). This is that mid-year slump in the world of education. It's not QUITE Spring
Break yet, and you are going to have to earn every single minute of it. It's too cold to play most days and you could swear your students are on something. Something strong. Wait. Did they eat...Valentine's candy...!?!
After typing up thousands of words, proofreading report card comments late into the night, and assembling 26 portfolios full of writing samples, intervention strategies, and assessments, I was ready for a vacay. THEN, on top of the cabin fever that was taking over Room 31 and meeting with 13 different families at parent-teacher conferences...this trip was just what the doctor ordered.
From the second we squealed, hugged, and jumped up and down in the Indianapolis airport terminal Friday night, to our last teary-eyed cup of Starbucks on Monday I was a sheer sponge.
Three glorious days to revel in the warm conversations (under warm blankets! brr!), laugh harder than I have in months, and beam with pride at the incredible lives my two
teacher-soulmates have built for themselves. Soaking up something we like to call "lov-wee."
Tyler and Gray are not just classmates of mine. Sure, I told my coworkers I was going to see "friends from graduate school that I used to student-teach with," but that hardly scratches the surface. These women have been and will be there for all of my big moments. Even moments at midnight...in the middle of the week...in graduate school, apparently.
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The term lovwee stems from an email Gray sent Tyler and I one night when we had to be apart during the last week of graduate school. She missed us so much that she sent us a love note via email at midnight that she just couldn't stand to be away from us. (We had seen her about 20 minutes before this message was received.) I am pretty sure the email said "love" about 8 times in two sentences. And the last line read, "soooooo much." Thus, the magic had already begun.
*******
We weren't looking for friends that fateful fall when we signed a lease on a tiny house full of teachers. Little did we know what kind of adventure we were in for. After our undeniable bond had formed and we began our job searches, we realized that God had other plans. Now that life has taken us all over the globe (from Savannah, Georgia to Mumbai, India) we are closer than we ever thought possible once we no longer shared a disgusting upstairs bathroom.
This magnet we spotted at an IU gift shop says it all,
Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they're always there.
These women are inspirational all around. And our friendship is not based solely on our career commonalities. It's not just about teaching. It's not just about roommate compatibility. The thing is, I had no idea in 2008, when I met them where I'd be in five years. I had no idea if I'd be teaching in five years. More importantly, I had no idea in 2008 how much life would happen in five years.
This past weekend, I had no idea how much life we would be able to catch up on in three days.
We have seen each other through so many ups and downs. In fact, as we were waiting for our luggage at the carousel, Gray literally pulled out her iPhone with a bulleted list of topics that we had to discuss before the weekend's close. We had all come prepared to paint the town of Bloomington red and white,
and came to find out that we could have met in a cardboard box on the
highway with a can of tuna and been happier than clams. We cancelled sight-seeing plans in lieu of another tough story, another hilarious anecdote, and another memory we had to relive (and clarify) so that we could add it to our happy bank.
Comically, Gray simply stated that if everyone had just ONE good friend like our bond, no one would need chocolate, therapy, prozac, or...even wine!?!?
We weren't surprised at all to find that we all accidentally owned the same winter coat, told Tyler's husband Barrett to order us pizza and open a bottle of wine before we got home, and in our pajamas on the couch, at brunch near campus, during a stroll with sweet pup Jack, while perusing Tim Gunn approved teacher-tastic work attire at several boutiques, and over midwestern beers at a local brewery we covered it all.
It's not just puffy coats we have in common. We are constantly amazed at the parallels.....
You had a student like that too?
Something just like that happened with me and my sister!
My mom is always saying the same thing.
I was going to recommend that exact book to you.
Since I have been back, my perspective, my mantra, the song in my heart has changed.
And so has that February weather. As soon as I landed, I tore off my coat, boots, and gloves to sit outside in the sun for the rest of my "Monday off" and bask in the afterglow of a lovwee-filled trip.
I was so moved seeing Tyler and Barrett take the midwest by storm - by hell or high water, to be exact. Family drama, career obstacles, and wind chill in the single digits doesn't stop this gal! I loved hearing about the world in Norfolk that Gray and Wiley have built from the ground up - no hurricane, mother-in-law, or struggling first grade reader can get in her path.
We teared up as I described my sister's beautiful ceremony to my two "married" friends.
We all felt such solidarity as we talked through changes every family experiences - our parents growing and changing into empty nesters who we now strangely see and treat as our peers, what happens when holidays look different because you have gained or lost a family member, and what it means to go "home" when you start to build your own. I have been repeating their dating advice in my mind each morning as I brush my teeth in the mirror with my IU shirt on. Who needs daily affirmations when you have lovwee? I didn't need their stamp of approval regarding my most recent crush, or ask them for advice regarding a decision to end my last relationship, but I want to do life with them and I want them in mine, even from afar. These women ARE teachers but we are also learners. Learning (and not afraid to learn) new things about life each day.
Can you think of any better way to spend Valentine's Day weekend?
''Maybe we can be each other's soul mates, and then we can let men be just these great, nice guys to have fun with.'' —Charlotte, Sex in the City
That's what Lovwee is all about.
P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARRETT AND THANKS FOR HAVING US AND I HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR FANCY PJs WE GOT YOU! XOXO GO HOOSIERS!
