All By Myself

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity at our house. As I posted previously, our son received a job offer to teach high school ceramics in Washington State. I didn’t do much but try to stay out of his way while he packed his essentials. On Saturday afternoon my husband and son packed the car and left early Sunday morning for the 30 hour drive across the country. They arrived safely and will begin settling our son in to his new cottage by the sea. I didn’t make the journey because I would only take up space in the car that was packed full with things the boy would need to survive for the next year. Instead, I’ve been doing something I haven’t done in over 26 years, sleeping in my own bed alone. With my job, I travel overnights occasionally and I’ve traveled with my mom and sister away from my husband, but he has never been away from home for more than a couple of days and I always had the children to keep me company. So with my daughter at school and the husband traveling with my son I have been relaxing. No need to ask anyone what they might like to eat, I just fix what I want. No need to get out of my pajamas on Sunday or no reason not to put them on when I get home from work. I’ve been watching old British TV dramas and some reality T.V. shows. I think I could get very used to this. Last night our cable provider lost service for a couple of hours. Since they provide our internet service as well, I went upstairs to my bedroom and curled up in the oversized chair next to the bed and, I read for several hours before going to bed. The house was so quiet with no distractions or feeling like I should be sitting with the husband talking and/or watching Cardinal baseball. When was the last time you had the house all to yourself for an extended time? What did you do to take advantage of being “single”?

Dreams Do Come True

Our son was an honor student in middle school and was invited to a program at Truman State University for advanced learners. He went to the program two summers in a row and his second summer he chose to study an art program where he discovered his love for artistic endeavors. When our son entered high school I told him to take classes in everything that interested him, including art. I expressed to him my desire that he find something he truly loved that he could make his career. My whole concept of finding something that they love has been something that I’ve expressed to both of our kids over and over again. I have worked many years at a variety of jobs but I have never had that joy of getting up in the morning to go to work at a job I love. Instead, each morning, I hit the snooze alarm and get out of bed at the last possible second to get ready for the day. My son went on to college - opting to go back to Truman - where he enjoyed those summer programs. He planned to become an art teacher which required four years of study. But late in his freshman year he called me excited to tell me that his counselor told him how he could get his bachelor degree in an art program and then follow up an extra year and get his Masters of Arts in Education. Through his diligence, in May of 2011, he left school with three degrees (BFA in Ceramics, BA in Painting and his MAE). He then began his long and arduous search for a job as a high school art teacher in Missouri. He substitute taught and interviewed again and again but always got the call that he interviewed well, made a great impression, but they decided to go another direction. He branched out on his job search and waited. Two and a half weeks ago our son was ready to give up on his dream when he received a call from an application he had filled out for a ceramic teacher position. They scheduled a Skype interview a couple of days later. He felt the interview went great, but he had been in this position before, so I was worried he would be disappointed again. But he received a call the following day with a job offer. So now, six years after beginning his journey to become a high school art teacher, he has achieved his goal. His father and I are extremely proud and are only disappointed that he has to move 2,100 miles away to the State of Washington. He will be leaving in less than a week and I can say that I’ve never heard him so excited about something in his life. He has prepared and endured hardship to reach his dream and all I can ask is that this ends up being everything he hopes it will be and that he can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning to get to his job. So if you have ever questioned whether dreams can come true my son would tell you, yes, they do.