I'm incredibly fond of northern Jersey

There really isn’t a feeling quite like leaving New York. I’m on a bus right now heading home. I’m not the homesick type, but it always feels so good to go home. I’m sure there are many reasons why (see friends, see family, get away from work), but I think a decent part is just getting to live a life different from the day-to-day routine you’ve established. What I mean to say is that even though there are loads of problems and sources of stress in your day-to-day life, it’s incredibly refreshing to realize that there are alternate lives you could be leading where those things wouldn’t matter at all. I guess it just puts everything in perspective.

Anyway, I apologize if I haven’t ever really said much in detail about work – where to begin? Let’s try the bullet point format:

• I keep really busy and work long hours (but I’m used to it now, so no worries)
  
• Due to bullet point 1, I’ve gotten used to a loootttt less sleep than I got back in school; however, I still suffer from TV/movie-induced narcolepsy
• Starting work in the finance industry when I did was a crazy experience, but I’ve learned an absurd amount and I think in the end it’ll be a good thing
• I’m starting to get a lot more responsibility for a lot of new, different things
• Remember when I said I wasn’t doing it for the money? Well, I think this last year proved it. So ha!

I think that’s it for now, I’ll keep it short. Except one word of advice: Dean R. and I went to see a pre-screening of Transformers and it blew chunks. Don’t waste your money or time.

GREAT summer reading!

In case any of you are beaching it and looking for a summer read that is fun and fabulous but still has some literary merit :), let me please recommend as strongly as I can..

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

It is technically a young adult novel but I devoured it in a night. I laughed, I cried, I decided to make all of my rising 8th graders read it over the summer. It seriously is one of the most lovely books I've ever read (especially that's written from the perspective of a teenage boy).

And just in case my recommendation doesn't carry enough weight with you :), a committee of parents in Chicago recently formed to try to ban this book from the public schools. Book won--but how's a little controversy for a recommendation??

Also, today is officially my last day EVER of being a first-year teacher. EVER. Very exciting.

Happy summer!

Today

...is the one year anniversary of our graduation. Just thought that was interesting.

Happy anniversary! Happy Monday!

BACK!

DIASPORATIC IS NOT DEAD! Does everyone remember that scene in The Matrix where Neo gets shot by the agent and dies? Remember how Trinity brought him back to life by kissing him? That is how it is with Diasporatic. It can be revived. All it needs is a little love!
I am officially back from deployment! Most of you already know that because with a few big exceptions (Sarah! Michelle! Steven!) I have seen most of you guys already. I can hardly describe how great it was to reunite with Amar, Sam and Dean for Foxfield. I would try to explain the elation I felt, but if I did Amar would accuse me of being emo. So I will just say it was a long-awaited pleasure. I even ran into a few people I wasn't expecting. Maha and Tommy both ambled by as I was having dinner at the College Inn with Amar and Sam.
I also got to go home for a few days and see my parents, my sister and the baby. She is huge now! She has started talking in complete sentences which are hilarious for their complete candour and unjaded logic. I have always had an incredible fondness for that child - all the more now that she is interactive! On a sadder note, I finally got to hear the details of my sister's divorce. It was very hard for me to hear her describe all that she went through while I was away. I felt terrible about having been so completely absent for the whole debacle. It was one of those moments where you start to question whether or not your career choice is worth the sacrifices. I am sure you have all had similar moments.
On 27 April I had to report to Newport, RI to continue my training. The Navy is always training you for something. No matter how many things you qualify yourself to do, they are forever trying to teach you to do something else. By getting my Officer of the Deck letter, I demonstrated that I know how to operate my ship. Now the Navy wants me to learn to operate every other kind of ship! That's what this three-week school is supposed to be about. It is called Advanced Shiphandling and Tactics. The first week was spent entirely in the simulators. They have some amazing sims here which more or less exactly approximate a real ship. Every day you go in and take your virtual ship through all kinds of hellish scenarios while a guy with a clipboard watches and grades you. The idea is to give you practice doing things with the ship which you ordinarily wouldn't get to do and to give the staff up here a chance to see how proficient you are. The second week has been a succession of interminable lectures on combat systems and tactics. This stuff is not nearly as interesting as it sounds. A 3-hour power point presentation about anti-submarine tactics is brutal treatment for even the most interested mind. Several such briefs in a row is the intellectual equivalent of waterboarding - a practice I thought we were supposed to be getting away from.
Aside from all that, I am having a great time up here. I am getting a lot of much-needed time with Arlene which is the most important thing. We spend most of our evenings trying out all the great restaurants and pubs in Newport. I have always been something of a hedonist when it comes to food and alcohol. Being with Arlene and having disposable income has only amplified that behaviour. She and I have those two vices in common, which is convenient. I have been attempting to work out regularly to mitigate the damage I am doing to myself. I am trying to be healthier in general. I have realised that I can't keep up my drinking and sloth indefinitely without significantly shortening my life expectancy. I have no intention of giving up drinking so I have been trying to do something about the sloth. So far I feel good!

I encourage you all to update Diasporatic with your experiences! We are coming up on a year since graduation. Can you guys believe that? The one year anniversary of our departure from college is a good occasion to revive our efforts to stay in touch and document our experiences and thoughts in this blog.

Anatomy closing ceremony

Quick update: we finished anatomy a week ago and earlier today had our closing ceremony, where we pay respect to those who donated their bodies. For the closing ceremony, I wrote a poem and performed it with a friend. I wanted to share it with you guys too.

PS - Weird that someone other than Sarah is posting on this thing, right?


Anatomy Poem

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Poetry Creative Writing

Middle School is Like Scotch

Just found this well-expressed quotation in a NYTimes article. It's from a middle school teacher in an inner city school, and it sums up my current feelings about my job quite nicely:

“Middle school is like Scotch. At first you try to get it down. Then you get used to it. Then it’s all you order.”

Suffice it to say, at the beginning of this year, I could barely stomach my job. I might have had one beer at a party (apparently too much for me) and confessed to my assistant principal that I would drive into work each morning contemplating how bad of a car accident I would need to get into to be injured enough that I could not go into school for several days, but not so badly hurt that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest. (She made me take a day off the next week.) Then, around November, I entered into the phase where I felt like I could handle it. There were fewer teary car rides home in the evening, fewer panic attacks Sunday night, but also very little real enjoyment of what I was doing, and I was contemplating switching careers next year.

On Friday, I realized that I could not stop thinking about how much I love my job. I was chaperoning a field trip and the kids asked me why I wanted to teach middle school, "'cause Ms. Stuntz, I'm not gonna lie, we've got ATTITUDES." I thought about it, and I didn't say all this to them, but I realized that while I never would have predicted this, I cannot picture a better job for me right now than teaching middle school. I get to teach the funniest people on the planet, hands down. Some days they are just like little adults; other days, they are temper-tantrum-throwing 5-year-olds. In other words, my life is never boring. I get to teach them a subject I love and watch them think it's cool, too. We're doing Romeo and Juliet at the moment, which is WAY more scandalous than I remembered, and while I have had to get over my fear of standing up in front of a group of 13 year olds and explaining sex jokes, they love it. I am still exhausted and way overworked (although, probably no more than the rest of you), but I am hoping that will change some next year when I already have materials made and can just tweak things. I don't want to glamorize things at all; my job is not nearly as cool or inspirational as they make it look in "Freedom Writers," and it is incredibly frustrating. But there is so much I enjoy that I think I want to keep going, at least for awhile.

All that to say, I was unofficially asked to stay next year, and I've decided to say yes.

That's the update on me, and, by the way, I am kicking the rest of y'alls butts in posting. And we all know I'm not nearly as interesting as I think I am, so update, please! I want to hear what people are thinking as the spring time rolls around.

Love, Sarah

P.S. I still don't drink Scotch.