Yesterday was a packed day. I worked from 9 to 1 and then went to a work happy hour at a colleague’s place. Those are always nice because you actually have time to talk about more personal stuff and get to know people in a social environment. I had to leave early though because I had promised my sister that I would help her pack.
The current update on their living situation is that they need to clean EVERYTHING and pack it up, so that then the cleaning company can come in a clean the main structure of the apartment before they continue with the construction. Apparently, they had some sort of mold/bug that impeded the workers and my sister’s family to be there in a health-safe manner. So there we were cleaning and wrapping everything in plastic paper so that today the cleaning crew could go in and do their job. Today they’re moving back to my place with 8 of those huge black plastic bags containing all their clothes, the poor things! It’s been a month since the flooding, so you can start to gauge the situation here…
Anyhow, back to yesterday. After helping my sister for a while I left to go to Queens to visit a friend of mine who moved into a new place about a month ago, and has been wanting me to go over.
Ina is one of my oldest girl friends, who is still around and whom I love very much. We met in 1991 in college (I think I just revealed how old I really am, yikes!) and have been close friends every since. We happen to both be living in NYC now, which is great. There’s nothing like having around people that knew you back in the day, in a foreign country, to help you feel like home. We made lasagna, drank wine, and talked, and talked, and talked.
One of our many conversations was trying to remember the different placements we had while student teaching. In our second semester we were placed in the same preschool, and to this day we still remember the children there. I have come to believe that experience changed us to the core, without us even knowing it. The place was an inclusive family style setting, with children of all ages ranging from 2 to 7, and who ran a gamut of special needs. In that center we learned to accept others and their differences, to love those who had been hit by misfortune, and to give smiles and hope to those who needed it. We were there for them to make their lives a little happier, and I guess in a sense more “normal” (whatever that may mean). But at the end, I think we were the ones who gained more from it. We definitely came out with a different perspective on education, and absolutely a more interesting take on life.
Cheers to old friends, good friends, and new friends, and to experiences that help shape the persons we’ll become.
Life is too short... 