I am now completely and totally obsessed with my snake sighting the other day, and I have a post brewing in my head about What It All Means, a post that connects snakes in my backyard, samskaras, yoga, and my internal journey.  Doesn’t that sound profound?  Unfortunately you are going to have to wait until tomorrow (I hope), as I only have a few minutes to write while I sit here at Panera, using the free wi-fi and drinking a mocha before I head off to teach Spanish to the kiddos.

Teaching Spanish is probably the most fun job I’ve ever had.  Sure, it’s tiring to deal with 100+ kids ages 4-14 all in one day but it’s also great to be around all that kid energy.  The little ones give me hugs and call me Mrs. Señora and demand to know the word for “poop” in Spanish.  A couple of the eighth graders blow me away with their enthusiasm and ambition; they are trying to get as far as they can in the textbook so they can be placed into second-year Spanish when they head off to high school next year.  It also helps that my co-teacher is fantastic to work with and lets me do a lot of the fun stuff!

The funny thing is, this is not the sort of job I would ever have sought out.  First of all, I would have thought I wasn’t qualified; I don’t have an teaching certificate (FreckleBoy: “MOM! Are you teaching without a LICENSE???”) or a degree in Spanish.  Second of all, the one thing I always swore I would never, ever do, was teach kids under the age of 18.  But when the opportunity arose and I was asked to do this job, what came into my mind was this:  “When you are offered the opportunity to do something you love, something that is in line with some of your strongest values, and to do it with people you respect, the only thing to say is YES.”

And on that note, I’m off to school!