Leaving On a Jet Plane

Well...in little less then a year from now...I will be...

See, I got a job teaching at this school. I'm their Middle School History teacher. I also cover 6th grade math...defying all my middle school and high school teacher's guesses as to what I would do when I got all growed up. Better still, every Monday and Tuesday from 2pm-3pm I will be teaching/coaching a wrestling elective. After 6 years I have finally found my way back to the mats, making me very happy indeed.

There are many things that make me happy about this position, as I have mentioned in previous posts. I am working with my old roomie and groomsman, Justin Rupple. I will have a permanent classroom to decorate, and my own desk (possibly my own office) away from the classroom. The wrestling is a big deal...my shoes have begun to despair of being used again. But most of all is the unexpected bonus...

you see...

every year...

the eighth graders...

have a trip...

to one of my favorite places in the world...

for ten days...

and come next March...

it will actually be part of my job...

for which they will actually be paying me...

to help oversee...

a trip to...

THE CITY OF WASHINGTON IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA!!!

The trip will include a visit to Jamestown (been there), Williamsburg (been there), Monticello (been there), Gettysburg (driven through it and looked at it as it passed by), and Philadephila (which I have never visited).

Since finding out about this incredible perk...I honestly haven't been able to think about much else. Its nearly a year away, but I feel like a kid the week before Christmas...it doesn't matter how long the wait is...when the waiting is done its going to be SOOOOO worth it!!!

This trip combines many of my favorite things in the world...I love being in places like Jamestown and Gettysburg...and I love traveling...I love staying in hotels...I love traveling with groups that get to experience amazing things together...and, of course, I love Washington D.C. Its possibly my favorite city in the world. Its the closest we have to old Europe in the New World, with monuments and marble everywhere. A testament to the enduring affect of buildings that are not merely practical, but are majestic.

Plus...as a history/politics buff, it only makes sense that I would gravitate towards the center of our nation's mind and history. Even though most things haven't happened there, they started there. And often, many things that happen elsewhere end up being celebrated there in museums or monuments. My dad used to take us to D.C. a lot...a lot. My memories are completely peppered by images of standing either in the spot where John Wilkes Booth ended the life of one of our greatest leaders and imagining what those moments of terror for everyone around Lincoln must have been like, or of standing in from of the ruined bones of the sunken ship in the Museum of American History, imagining what it would have been like to stand on the deck as the cannonballs ripped through the hull, or simply looking at the giant marble image of the giant man we knew as Honest Abe (I'm a Lincoln fan, if you haven't guessed). Its part of why I love history...it wasn't a text book, it was in front of me and I could let my imagination take flight at the thought of actually living in that moment in time.

I also love being in a city with a Metro that is effective. I love being in an East Coast city, where people are focused on life (they could stand to relax more...but its refreshing from the laid back nature of California). I just...love it all.

And I cannot get it out of my mind. I tell Sheri every couple of hours, just to make sure she understands...I am going to Washington D.C. If all my dreams come true someday I will have a job that involves working in that city...something in my field, of course. I could go be a janitor...but, well, lets just say that's not the dream.

Though my Dad recently told me that while he was in Bible college not 25 minutes (a metro ride) outside of D.C. in Maryland, he applied for a job as a night security guard of the Smithsonians. I'm like him...he's like me...that's a dream job, at least, for a single guy it is. Unlimited access to the museums, no crowds, D.C. at night. It doesn't get much better than that. He didn't get it...which, it turns out, was a good thing. He said he might have quit Bible school if that had come through. Life would have been very different indeed.

Oh...and also, I am looking forward to having one of my favorite slices of pizza, located at the back end of the food court under Union Station. Easily one of the best pizzas I've had, and one of the other special parts of the D.C. experience.

Ah. I am going to D.C. Rock ON.