One Semester Down

The first semester at BWYA has come to a close. As an educator, I find myself measuring my life in the segments of the school year, so this first chapter of my time in Beijing has been completed, at least in my mind.

I can't say that I am satisfied as I look back on the fall. There were tons of positives: great friendships were formed and maintained, meals and laughter were shared, learning happened, events came and went, and time passed. But as I think back in search of defining moments in the past four months, there are not that many.

Perhaps one reason that this is true is that last spring - my nearest time frame for comparison - was incredible. The people I was with - Mark Nola; the students and staff of CCS; "The Crew": Kara, Heidi, Ashley, Duncan, Anna, Ben - were sensational. We had adventures. We went and did things, or we made what we had to do insanely fun, or [usually] both. One slang word that was floating around a lot was "epic"; like when my board marker rolled off my podium and onto the floor, and Josh would yell, "Haha! Epic fail!" Though it does not do that failure justice, I would apply the word "epic" to those months of my life. Lots of laughter, lots of memories, and hard competition for a spot in my heart, apparently.

It is a stupid idea to judge this season of life against the last one, especially when considering that last spring was sort of the product of two years of investment in different people and in the school. In August, in Beijing, I was starting new and fresh, with hardly any foundation except that Dawna was here. If I think back to when I got to CCS and was swamped with work every night - as I seemed to be this fall - I didn't create too many "epic" memories then, either.

What I did do during that time was lay the groundwork for the next year and a half. In that time period - as in the one that just concluded with the end of school on Wednesday - I began various unique relationships, figured out what it took to work at that school, and experienced a variety of failures from which to learn, as well as worked my butt off. So perhaps what I should be thinking about is not how ho-hum I think the first semester was - because, really, it went quite well: I went on several trips, started new clubs, met some guys I hope are lifers, and taught really cool middle schoolers - but how all the things I started will blossom and grow and turn into more impactful elements of my life if I continue to invest in them.

There. I'm glad we had this talk.