Of the many memorable songs in Hamilton, the one playing in my head this week is King George’s satirical goodbye:

You’ll be back, soon, you’ll see
You’ll remember you belong to me
You’ll be back, time will tell
You’ll remember that I served you well
Oceans rise, empires fall
We have seen each other through it all
And when push comes to shove
I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!

My King George is teaching.

At this point in the year, in the evening between the last day of May and the first day of June, after back to back fieldtrips, with mountains of work to grade, and reports to write, and several end of year ceremonies to endure I. Am. Done. The summer cannot start soon enough – this one will be completely mine for once. A summer off from anything teaching related with lots of open blocks of time for writing, travel, and a meditation retreat. And at summer’s end? Well, in this case, Georgie is right, I will be back, rested and ready.

I love that my job is cyclical. The year rises and falls, the kids grow up and move on, there is another chance to repeat the successes and fix the mistakes of the years before. But the time off in between those years is precious and necessary. This job requires a lot of giving and the well drains quickly. And this year especially? A DOOZY. I don’t think I have begun to process all that occurred. (Invite me out to coffee and I’ll spill all the tea.)

Summer is our time to refill our mostly empty cups. For some that might include professional development, additional training, deep reflection, or even a complete revamp of curriculum, role, or life. But for others, it might not and we are not out here wasting time or losing steam. We are restoring and restocking so we can come back to the job that calls us.

If you know a teacher, celebrate this time with them and encourage them to take as much of the summer as they can for themselves. If we made it through this year, we were victorious. Year 19 loading…

News and Reviews

A prose poem, “The Dharma of Mastectomies” was placed in Spoken Black Girl Magazine. It is about my mother’s breast cancer treatment. I know so many women who have or have had breast cancer – way too many. Let’s get our mammograms and hold each other in the light.

I will be at ALA San Diego! I am excited to celebrate Nearer My Freedom‘s YALSA finalist designation with our publisher, Lerner Books. Let me know if you will be in town too! It will be bittersweet because this was Monica’s favorite professional event. She went every year and in fact, our last dinner together before her stroke was in DC during the conference. I wish the world had aligned for us to attend together.