Funny how things work out

So I'm just looking over the few entries I've posted over the last month or two, and it's interesting to see how things are slowly evolving with this TNTP process....

Since the very beginning, I've wanted to capture my entire experience of this journey ~ my ups and downs, worries and disappointments, triumphs and celebrations... because it really is a big undertaking. In no way do I think or feel that entering the field of Education as a teacher [with absolutely no experience, mind you] will be an easy thing. I expect challenges. I expect great things, too. I also expect that there will be some days that I will wonder what the heck I've gotten myself into....

But I can't help but think about how the blogs of other writers have helped me so much already, even at this early stage. I haven't even started Summer Institute yet and still I've been encouraged so much by the musings of bloggers like Fear the Fellow and Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare... just reading their experiences and feelings and thoughts through their first years in particular have kept me encouraged and excited about the things that lie before me. I can only imagine some new Teaching Fellow getting their acceptance into the program next year, eagerly Googling anything even close to a blog done by someone who's already walked a little ways in the shoes they're about to fill... and I hope that my experience can help someone at some point, too.

There's a part of me that's soooo uber excited, ready to get started learning, finding out the how-to's of helping to make a change [even if only a small dent] in our educational system's woes, and there's another part of me that's kept grounded and realistic about the things that I may encounter that just might try to rain on my parade a little. This is why these other blogs have been so helpful. While I fully plan to hold onto my excitement for this whole thing, I want to learn from the wisdom that others have shared from the trenches - the real talk that you don't get from any textbook or Institute workshop.

It's a real balancing act, to say the least, but a real healthy and realistic one, I think. I think it will do me very well to hold onto it for awhile!