Goofs
Originally uploaded by ellenjohnrubicon.
We've nearly made it through a full school year. For me, for them. It's been great for all of us.
Right now:
Sophie is reading. But more importantly, she LOVES to read. She chooses a book to read to us every night at bedtime, no prompting, no nagging, no hounding. It is exactly as it should be. Self-directed, fulfilling, awesome.
There were emotional days early on, but I feel like since 2012 began, Sophie hit her stride and never looked back. She is confident, proud, and deeply, lovingly attached to Ms. K and the rest of the gang. I could not have dreamed of a better first school experience for Sophie, or a better first teacher.
Rosy has been simply amazing at school and been allowed to shine in ways my patience, I fear, might not have let her shine was she home with me. Any place that, on a single morning, provides Oobleck, shaving cream paint, blocks and scarves for constructing "bunk beds," a walk to the park and back, and a soaked-overnight bean for "experimenting," is simply Rosy's place. She has been her best self at school. I don't think you can ask for anything more from a place, or from the incredible people she has in her classroom.
Social work school has been exactly what I hoped for. Deeply engaging, challenging, broadening. Going into an internship next year, I can see myself working in any number of different situations, happily. I feel privileged to be entering a field of such connected, committed individuals. But then again, I knew that going in.
Logistically, it got easier as the year went on. I was writing faster, reading the highlights, juggling more. It made me appreciate the enormous privilege of college, where final exams didn't need to be juggled with LIFE. Your life was exams, and that was that. I had some idea then of the incredibly rosy world I lived in. And that world is still rosy, if not a bit more complicated.
Thanks to John and a group project, I carved out more time to be at school and worked with some great people who I am happy to call "social work friends." I learned very quickly that a tiny, tiny percentage of your learning at this level comes from classtime. So much falls to you. And like a professor said the first week, you will become what you decide to become. A thin or a thick yellowpages, with as much information as you are willing to put in.
My second favorite social work metaphor came from another professor, who described the profession as a bit like the Food Network show "Chopped." You get a box of terribly random, occasionally unpalatable things and you're asked to make something great out of them. Or, I aim to do the work my girl's teachers are doing this year. Helping them be their most authentic, best, supported selves.
In a nutshell.
