Coming out of day one, I have some rants and raves, so I've decided to start with the positive first before venting about a few of the problems I'm currently experiencing here. As much as TFA sometimes encourages us to always keep our happy faces on, I've promised myself that I will be totally candid when blogging about my personal experiences here (my filter comes back into play only when discussing what goes on in my classroom and my students, who will always be anonymous).
The Good
Don and I had an AWESOME Saturday here in Mississippi. We are both history buffs, and I am of course interested particularly in the Native American influences on this region, so we traveled to Greenville on Saturday to tour the Winterville Mound Site. This incredible site boasts of the second tallest Indian mound in the nation, and it was incredible to see in person. We have visited mounds all over Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, but Winterville was one of the neatest places to visit.
You probably can't tell just from this picture, but it's five stories tall!
The stairs to the top were closed for repair, but hey, we're rebels and climbed up anyway.
The view from the top across the flat land of the Delta was so incredible.
While touring the mounds, we met a lovely couple from the Leland area who struck up a conversation with us after they heard us tell the museum curator that we're from Nashville. I explained that I'm doing TFA, and they spent about fifteen minutes talking about their experiences growing up here as lifelong Mississippians. I could tell they were a little bit anxious about how outsiders perceive the state as they assured me that the Delta is full of good people and fun things to do. It was so nice to meet people with so much pride in their community- of course, they told us that Friday night football and school rivalries will be super fun here in the fall! They also suggested that we visit Warfield Point Park, where there is a big viewing tower to look over the Mississippi River. Since I haven't seen the Mississippi since traveling to Oklahoma back in high school with my grandparents, we decided to check it out.
On the way over, we stopped at the most adorable riverboat museum. The thing that I LOVE about Mississippi is that there is always a hole-in-the-wall museum or another adventure waiting around the corner. We ended our Saturday by driving over to Arkansas, just to say we did, and having dinner and a movie. Sadly, the theater in Greenville is the only one within like a hundred miles, so I will definitely be taking advantage of that whenever I'm there!
On Sunday, I had to register for institute, and finally got my summer placement! I'll be teaching 10th and 11th grade English at East Side High for the summer! I was so excited that I went over immediately and snapped some pictures of my new school home.
This placement is definitely ideal for me, as I was so worried about having to teach a subject outside of my content area. My school location is also only ten minutes away from Delta State's campus, so I am one of the last buses to leave in the morning. This is incredibly lucky, because some of fellow corps members are being bused an hour away to teach every morning. No thank you!
Today was my first day on campus, and my favorite part was meeting my principal. He is a former college football coach, and has an incredibly dynamic personality. It's good to know that I'll be working with many high-energy faculty and administrators this summer!
One other positive thing since my last blog post is that I finally finished organizing my room the way I want it, and I have almost everything hung up on the walls. I was super lucky to get a dorm room to myself, so I pushed the twin beds together and am using one of the desks as an entertainment center. Plus, I have my own bathroom and double the storage! It is really a blessing since I'm so introverted at times, and I am really enjoying my space.
The Bad
It turns out that professional development really sucks. I was quite literally bored to tears at times during the day. I came in this afternoon and immediately laid down in the floor to have a mini-cry. Not because I'm sad, but because the thought of every day this week being like today feels really painful right now. I know that the TFA national staff has our best interests in mind and do their best to make everything interesting, but there's just some things you can't make interesting. It is a little bit frustrating for me because I already understand how to plan lessons and manage my classroom and do those sorts of things, so a lot of it feels like review. I am trying to stay open-minded about everything, but I was completely DONE by the end of today. I am excited to get into my classroom and start doing my own thing a little bit more independently. I am not about this life where I get read to out of a manual all day. Yuck!
I'm also a little homesick for the conveniences that I enjoyed in Macon and the Franklin area. Here, there just a few restaurant options and not many chain restaurants that people are familiar with. Pretty much all of your shopping, from clothes to food to household goods, happens at Walmart. I died a little on the inside when I realized there's no Ross, which is one of my favorite places to shop. And I'm pretty sure the nearest Starbucks is in Memphis. I won't even go into detail there, it makes me feel anxiety. Like, really. I had no idea how much of a city girl I actually am until I made this move.
The Delta is mostly flat farm land. No malls or Starbucks here!
My other little whiny tidbit is that the food here is not the greatest, especially for vegetarians. I have been eating out a lot, which tends to burn through money fast. Every corps member gets a free meal plan through Delta State's cafeteria, and some days are better than others. We pick up a bag lunch to eat at our school campus every morning, and while I had a great salad with edamame and beans last week, today was an icky tofu wrap. On the bright side, maybe I'll drop some weight after this whole experience. When Don leaves tomorrow, I won't be tempted to eat out as much, which brings me to...
The Ugly
Don has been nice enough to stay here all week and help me settle in, but tomorrow he definitely, absolutely has to leave. He is doing some work for his Dad's company over the summer, and I need to buckle down here and get focused before my students arrive. It makes me really sad to think about being so far apart, and with my car being really old, it can't make too many trips home over the summer. I know that with Don leaving, I'll be down here without my biggest supporter, my partner, and my right-hand-man, so that will be hard. The long distance is a sacrifice that's really no fun whatsoever, but it's one we have to make to let me be effective in one of the neediest communities in the nation. Don is so important to my work, and things would be a lot harder without him cheering me on, even if it has to be from afar. I am just so freaking ready to walk down that aisle next July, like seriously, five years of dating and two stints of long distance, enough is enough already.
It's also like 95 degrees and 100% humidity here every day. I'm from the South, and I think this weather is gross. I'm going to be doing a lot of laundry because everyone here is sweating through their clothes in like five minutes flat. Maybe I should be used to it after Macon, where it's actually worse, but I was never really there in the summer. The weather is nasty. Like Dad says, it's air you can wear.
The other big thing I'm struggling with right now is the community's reaction to Teach For America. I felt like I was prepared for some backlash coming into TFA, because I definitely understand the criticisms of the organization, but some community members really just have some wrong assumptions about who every TFA corps member is and what motivates us individually for being here. On the one hand, I feel like I have picked up my life and made some huge sacrifices to be in this place, so I would like to be given the benefit of the doubt, but I also understand that respect has to be earned. Overall, I'm excited to get into my school and start working more closely with the community.
At the end of the day, I think I'm doing a really good job for someone who's a pessimist at heart to find the positive in things and keep pushing through this experience. I'm working my arse off already, and this is one of the easiest weeks yet. It's a wild journey, but it's a good one.
-Love, Linds
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