A Desert Diary: Teaching and Life Inspiration!!!!

*Thoughts and reflections from my trip to Thailand -- April 3rd - April 12th

NESA Spring Educators Conference

Sister Adventure Beach Vacation

A great deal of my thoughts and reflections about the NESA conference itself were communicated in my official ePortfolio professional development evidence (which can be read in the post End of Year Teaching Reflections). Those reflections, however, were quite "official" and though well-written, were not as personal as I would have liked them to be. The truth is, the NESA conference was incredibly inspirational. Though I was attending hours upon hours of workshops and spent every second of the conference engaged in either note-taking or active discussion, I was extremely energized and felt a renewed sense of purpose and vigor. Every morning I woke up thinking how lucky I was. How lucky I am to have found a professional career that is not only meaningful, inspirational and important in the world -- but one that I genuinely like and am good at. I do not claim to be a perfect teacher, far from it, but teaching is something that I am naturally gifted at. It comes easily to me and I have good instincts for it.

While attending the conference, I kept thinking about my future and I fantasized about potential grad school programs and more advanced opportunities for me to deepen my knowledge and become an expert in my field. I communicated with my mother quite frequently during my stay in Bangkok (because she too is an "education junkie" and is also invigorated by continuous learning) and shared with her my fears about being a presenter. I told her that everyone around me was an "expert" and knew so much about their various fields of interest. I know a lot about Shakespeare for a person of my age, but I am by no means a Shakespeare "expert". I felt out of my element. I felt unworthy! She coolly reminded me that these experts I was talking with and learning from were just like me at one point in their lives: "they were certainly not attending NESA conferences and working at international schools on their own at the age of 25" she said. True. I know that to become a master of a subject requires years, decades even! I realized that while I may not be the best in my field yet...I am at least taking the right steps to getting there.

Attending NESA was like being in college again. If I had an unlimited and inexhaustible source of income, I would honestly be in college forever. I would get hundreds of master's degrees and doctorates and just spend my days reading and writing and learning. That to me is my image of heaven.

I don't have a concrete plan right now as to when I'll go to graduate school or where, but I have a lot of ideas in my head and I'm just waiting until I have enough money and time to commit to it 110%.

Life feels absolutely infinite right now.
So full of opportunities, chances, risks, dangers, challenges and joys.

Here's to taking on all of it!

Pictures of me presenting my workshop at NESA:
"De-mystifying Shakespeare"