I’m not very good at waiting. I’m an action kind of person. If I walk into a store and the lines are super long, I’ll walk out and come by some other time. I’m also not good at waiting to make decisions. When I need to decide on something, I want to weigh all the…
My “Impractical” Convertible
My father said I should think about buying a new car. My current one was seven years old, and according to dad that was old enough. However, my current car was the first car I had actually paid for with “my own money” and I had never envisioned getting rid of a perfectly drivable vehicle. …
Writing for Public Consumption
On Christmas morning when I was seven, I received my first diary. An avid reader, I loved the idea of writing down my own personal thoughts and what transpired during my days. I never intended anyone to read the words I had written. But my siblings apparently thought I had something juicy in there. I…
On Not Having the Degree
On NPR last November, they were interviewing a guy who made a documentary about what he called “the best high school in the world.” As a math tutor who struggles to understand how it is that I have high school students who still don’t know their times tables, I was curious. He said 85% of…
A Lesson for my Students
While waiting for me to start the review session for their upcoming exam, one student asked, “So why are you a teacher?” “You mean my motivation for teaching?” I asked. “No, I mean, didn’t you say you were a physical therapist? So I’ve been wondering why you’re a teacher,” he clarified. Oh how I loved…
My Folk School Reunion
Hello all – For today’s post I’m going to refer you to two posts I wrote as a guest blogger while at the John C. Campbell Folk School a couple weeks ago. It was my second time the Folk School (the first was in March, 2006 which I talked about in an earlier post). http://blog.folkschool.org/2010/03/08/a-reunion/…
On Affording my Lifestyle
“Do you ever worry about saving up a bunch of money for the day you might retire?” my friend Kate asked me. “No,” I responded. “So you really do just live in the moment?” she asked. “Well, I mean, I do have savings. I try to put the max in my Roth every year and…
The Folk School
In true Rebecca fashion, when I got my first catalog for the John C. Campbell Folk School, I wanted to take every class they had. Blacksmithing? Sign me up! Glass bead making? Yes, I want to do that! Woodturning? Had no idea what that was, but after reading the class description, I wanted to try…
The Camino
It was in the Spring of 2000 that I first heard about El Camino de Santiago. I had the TV on in the background while I was getting ready for work. I did not know much about Shirley MacLaine, but was familiar with the name. I stopped to watch, though, as she talked about the…
Ask for Help!
Four weeks into the semester, one of my students e-mailed me. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m behind in my assignments because I didn’t get my book yet.” She proceeded to tell me that she initially couldn’t afford the book. Then, when she had the money the bookstore was out of the…
