What? Not the time for that? OK…

I recently received an email from my favorite college professor, Dr. Mieczyslaw Dabkowski. He has been nominated for the Regents’ Outstanding Teacher Award, an honor given across the entire UT system, and needed student letters of support as a part of his teaching portfolio.

He felt understandably awkward about asking for such letters from his current students. And so the privilege of testifying to the excellent qualities of a truly outstanding teacher fell to me. (I had written a couple of emails, thanking him, just after I graduated. I guess he remembered them.)

ANYWAY… one of Dr. Dabkowski’s most notable qualities is his profound humility. Given, humility means a lot more to me than it does most of the world. But, his humility really impacted me.

As it turns out, I am pretty passionate about that whole humility thing. (OK, I knew this already.) But there was no mistaking that fact when I went to write about it in my letter.

When I read those paragraphs aloud to my roommates, I could not stop laughing at myself… and how absurdly carried away I had gotten in those paragraphs. I somehow made  it through OK with Amanda, and simply added a couple of lines and moved it to the end of the letter (so as not to lose everyone at the beginning). But by the time I read it to Wendy, my brain kicked in and I KNEW that it was going to require severe revision.

I’m still really amused with myself. And the paragraphs are just too good to lose them forever. And then I remember… I have a blog for things like this. (No, that isn’t really why I have this blog.)

I can hardly believe that I typed anything like this with any intention of giving it to such a committee. In all honesty, a significant number of people who would read the letter are probably guilty of the very thing that I am railing at. Truth be told, I kind of do want to preach at them. I wouldn’t be railing at this thing if I didn’t find it utterly repulsive and was not so irked by it. But… a letter of support for a guy I really want them to love is NOT the place to do that.

And now… with no further ado… I give you the paragraphs that begged for revision:

Hello, Change

Our community is ever in a state of flux. Perpetual, significant change is just a norm. The intensity and the facets of the seasons of transition ebb and flow. Sometimes there are simple, gradual changes. Sometimes there are huge changes like death and birth, people leaving the country, people leaving the NightWatch.

We seem to have passed into another one of those high-intensity transitional times again.

First, we have the circumstances of change:

Not Teaching Anymore

This actually happened about three weeks ago, but I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write about it. So… here it is.

As of November 19th, I am no longer a geometry teacher for the Daniel Academy. Praise the Lord. I will say it again… Praise the Lord.

We weren’t too far into the semester before I realized how seriously I had overcommitted. Between the bookstore, the prayer room, and teaching, I had far more on my plate than I could actually handle. And so I pleaded for mercy.

The Daniel Academy was amazing. They understood my desperation and released me from my contract. The only condition to my being released was that we find another teacher.

Reason #87

This is reason number 87 that I love my geometry students: Wax seals. I have told my students that I will give them two bonus points if they use a wax seal to reseal their tests after they take them. (All of our tests for the Daniel Academy are done at home.) Well, they have responded and risen to the challenge. Last time, I got two wax seals. This time, I got something like 7 of them.

Oops… I overcommited.

It is becoming increasingly evident that I bit off more than I could chew this year. And now I feel like I have two choices:

One – spit it back out, as disgusting, disappointing, and shameful as it may be.

Two – completely choke on it.

Between the prayer room, the bookstore, and the Daniel Academy… I have committed to too many things. I have cut back as much as I could in all of it, and it still isn’t working.

The Fruitcake that is My Schedule

Why am I calling my schedule a fruitcake? Well, it was the first really dense conglomeration of mushed-together stuff that I could think of. Actually, kind of the only one. One large substance made from a tighly packed collection of thematically related elements.

I am a human being, so there are a few basic scheduling necessities:
I sleep (though I’m working on trying to do more of that and in a more consistent way).
I eat (also working on more consistency with that one).
I hydrate (I consider myself to be quite skilled in this activity).

I am also an intercessory missionary, so we add a few more necessities:
I spent time in the prayer room (and I am not shifting these hours to fall between 10 PM and 2 AM each day).
I go to FCF each week.
I raise support.
I go to things like team briefings.
I have service hours (addressed below).

I am a manager at the Forerunner Bookstore, hence: