Old Friends and Job Fairs

Last night I got to hang out with some of my childhood friends, Leena and Neha Patel. We all grew up together on the same street and had an incredibly fun childhood. My parents have since moved but their parents still live on our old street- Quiet Spring or the "QS." My parents' new house has never fully felt like home. Being in the Patels' where I had spent so much of my childhood was like coming home. It felt so good. We had such a good time laughing, catching up and remembering our past adventures. We watched an incredible video of Neha's eighth birthday. I was ten, Andrew was eight and Jocelyn was eight. We were such funny little kids. Eleven year old Leena seranades her sister with a crude violin solo of "Happy Birthday." I eagerly keep asking when we will open the presents, Andrew shoves Jocelyn from behind and Jocelyn accidentally says her name is Jocelyn Hightower. Priceless memories! I am not a fan of the suburbs for my current stage of life but I think I may end up there when I have kids. It is just so fun to have all your friends living on the same street.

Today I raced home from work, got fancy and headed to a job fair. It was for student teachers but I can't attend the big city-wide one because of YoungLife camp. They let me in, thankfully. I had only been to one job fair before and I only went to have an excused absence from student teaching. I knew I wasn't going to be a teacher. This time was different. I actually wanted to get a job. It was a lot like one of those speed dating things I've seen on tv. You had to sell yourself in about five minutes and hope for the best. I talked to one principal, whose school I wouldn't want to work at. She seemed worn out and said that 100 out of 500 students from her school left last year to attend other schools. HISD lets students apply to go to other schools. Bad sign that 1/5 of the school left.

One school seemed really cool. The school is only two years old and no teachers have taught for more than six years. There are definitely some benefits to having older teachers around but I like the idea of working with people who are close to me in age and open to do things in new and creative ways. The school sent several teachers on the hiring committee as well as the principal. One of them was a super cute male fourth grade teacher. He seemed really nice and wasn't wearing a wedding ring. This is not the only reason I liked the school but it didn't hurt. We seemed to be on the same page with our educational ideas and he secured me a visit to the school. I go on Tuesday morning. I don't want to get my hopes up but it seems like a cool school. I am also going to visit another school on Tues and talked to a couple other principals about getting together later. It feels good to make progress. Please keep praying for my job.