A Bouquet of Newly Sharpened Pencils

Creative Commons

Don't you love New York in the fall?  It makes me want to buy school supplies.  I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

One of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies:  You've Got Mail.

It does not feel like fall here but school is starting back and that always makes me think of fresh starts and school supplies.

I want to give a shout-out to all the teachers I know. I'm surrounded by people who either are or were teachers. One person I know is entering into her first year of teacherhood (high school I think). Another has become a pre-school teacher. I know two kindergarten teachers and a retired English and Spanish teacher.  As well as a teacher who now specializes in English as a Second Language. In the blogging community, I've also found a couple of teachers that I feel like I "know" on some real level. As Kathleen Kelly said: "The odd thing about this form of communication is that you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings".

I do love school supplies. Around this time I can find some really cool notebooks and organize things.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to teach.  Interestingly, I thought I would be a teacher when I first went to college. I wanted to teach high school English. But then I took a required course Freshman year and knew I would not be able to commit to the major. In fact, I dropped the class and started looking for another major.

Many years after college and well into my professional life (banker), I took some time off from the career track and pursued my desire to actually teach school.  I taught 7th-grade math in a school with a largely "under-served" population. I learned at least as much as the kids did.  --Probably more. I also learned how I would do it differently if I had the chance to teach again. I feel I better understand some of the realities that my students and their parents had to deal with. Their reality makes it difficult to really expect homework to be meaningful. 

Let me say I'm totally proud of the year I was a teacher. And I feel even more love and respect for our career teachers.

I also really love the movie "You've Got Mail. I found a published script right here: Script of "You've Got Mail". I was doing a search to make sure I had the quote above right.  I found that just reading the script made me fall in love with it again.

I leave you with this sweet email. 

Subject: RE: Brinkley Date: 9/16/98 7:28:50 PM Eastern Standard Time From: Shopgirl To: NY152 I like to start my notes to you as if we're already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we're the oldest and dearest friends -- as opposed to what we actually are, people who don't know each other's names and met in a Chat Room where we both claimed we'd never been before. What will he say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you.