This post has been a couple months in the making. Not that it has taken a couple months to write, but rather nearly everything that has taken place in the past couple months has been for the time at hand. From the beginning, I have said that we are trying to prepare for something that you can’t really prepare for. Standing in tomorrow’s shadow, I am excited to finally put this theory to the test.
I am now officially in Indianola, Mississippi and will begin my year as a teacher at Gentry High School tomorrow. I have been getting established at the high school for a little over a week now. I stopped in on Friday, July 30 to try and meet the administration and get some initial supplies for my classes. What resulted from that was a spot on Gentry’s coaching staff. Since then, I have been working with the quarterbacks in the afternoons and trying to build rapport with the team. I am hopeful that serving as a football coach will help my profile on campus; they already seem somewhat receptive to me. My experiences have shown that the athletic field is a classroom for life. Skills gained and lessons learned from sport continue to resonate with me personally. I hope I can encourage these same parallels for my players on the field, and more importantly, in the classroom. Outside of practice, we have been in faculty meetings and in our classrooms making preparations for the year. We have been fingerprinted and drug tested and completed a copious amount of paperwork.
We have also heard candid words about the challenge we face as educators. Within these words, though, I have seen glimpses of hope. Several of the teachers at Gentry are also alumni. Knowing that they were once in the shoes of many of the students at Gentry serves as a window into what can be done. We are being given an incredible task in molding and shaping the youth of Indianola. If their generation is anything like the previous ones, then time will show that we are literally educating the future of this community. Several teachers at Gentry can point to instances where they have taught a parent and their child. Many of the students here will likely never leave. These truths and more add a weight to what is taking place tomorrow and what will occur this year.
Admittedly my nervous optimism is clouded with worrisome doubt, yet all the worry in the world will not change the reality that tomorrow is coming all the same.
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