Nervous Anticipation

Tomorrow is my first day with students. It's a very odd feeling. I haven't been in this situation for six years. I am nervous, scared, excited, and fearful all at once. I keep going over what I am going to say to my new students in my head. Repeat, change, scratch out, add, repeat. I am trying not to think about it too much, but the more I try not to think about it, the more I actually do.

I feel a bit better about my new job after today. We had a big kickoff today for all the schools of the township. Afterwards, more than one person asked me if I wanted to join the group for lunch. It was so nice to be included. AND, one of the teachers saw my tattoo and went ga-ga over it. She said it was totally adorable, and that sparked an entire conversation about tattoos: who had them, where, who wanted them, etc. There was even discussion about all going together for our next one. On top of that, the same woman who noticed my tattoo started talking about her birthday gift from her husband. She said she received a gift certificate to go 'swim' with the dolphins at the zoo. I got the same gift for my anniversary, so she suggested we go together, and she seemed really sincere. Wow. I feel like things are really coming together.

Before I stop for the night, let me write about one more piece of symbolism (I know, you're tired of these) that occurred today. During one of my last weeks at my old job, I semi-broke a pen of mine. I was beating on the desk with it, and after that, it wouldn't click up anymore. It was still usable, but it was so ghetto. I had to force it to click into place. It paralleled my job. It would work for me, but I had to force it to work. I had to work hard to make it useful. Today, I picked it up, and it just easily, smoothly clicked into place. Wow. Just....wow.

Can God really talk through ink pens?