Writing Conference in NY -- I spend the day with a lot of smart people

April 15th -- Today I did something that I was really proud of.  A while back, I got this flyer advertising workshops presented by the Thinking and Writing Institute at  Bard College in NY.  I looked at the flyer and one of the workshops about teaching poetry looked interesting.  It said the school was on the Hudson River.  For some bizarre reason, I assumed that meant it was near NYC so I sent in a check.

I figured, why not?  It would be cool to attend the workshop with a lot of other English teachers.  It would give me a sense of perspective about the profession, help me in my quest to find a teaching job.  There were about 100 people there.  I was the only one who wasn't teaching in a classroom.  There were no teachers from a middle school that I saw on the list.  Interesting.  It was mostly high school teachers and college professors.

And it was awesome.  I met some very, very nice people who were interesting and smart.  I had a blast.  Right from the very start, I hung with this guy named Eric who had a 16 month old daughter, a woman named Tara who was really sweet and had a sixth month old boy and  a guy named Tom who had a six year old son.  He was actually one of the few participants who lived in my state.

The bottom line, as I said to my family tonight when I got home, is that I was proud of myself.  I sent a check to a school (where I was very wrong about location -- it was not anywhere near NYC!) and I drove all by myself  through practically all the cow pastures in upstate NY -- and I found it!  I was remarkably calm about going;  I barely stressed about it and actually looked forward to the adventure.  For the last couple of days and during the day today, I kept kind of "observing" myself.  I don't know why I was so calm about the trip -- most times I get a little tense about signing up for things that I have no clue who will be there or how it will turn out.  Plus, I went alone.  But I have to say, playing the role of the calm person on an adventure really appeals to me.  The courage part is duly noted.  And since I am my own worst critic, this is a great compliment to self!!!