Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Today was a great day! First, our entire Network at school was down for hours. This was a first for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it; no email, no u-drive, no Internet. This left me unexpectedly calm, calmer than I've ever been before at work. How can a person be stressed about work when it's impossible to do your job anyway? Not to say that I didn't work; I got a LOT accomplished; I cleaned off my desk, for starters (How many of you can say that?!) I also got some much-needed filing done.

The beauty of all this was that when we finally did get back on-line, my mailbox was EMPTY (because obviously no one else had access either.) What a treat.

The second wonderful thing about today was the news I heard from Mr. D, the Technical Director of the musical. I had asked him, "So, are you sad that it's over?" and his reply was, "Nope. It's not over; keep the costumes. She's going to need them!" This is because they are going to take the show on the road this summer! That's right! They are going to perform The Seussical for patients of the Milwaukee Children's Hospital and the Madison Children's Hospital!!

This is such exciting news, and it tells you more about the amazing teachers who are behind all of this. Mr. D (Joe) is spearheading this idea and doing all of the planning. An amazing thing about Joe is that if not for fate, he would have died in high school. Have you seen Who I Am Makes a Difference video? The young man in the story plans to kill himself, but fate intervenes. This is exactly what happened to Joe, who was tired of struggling through life with undiagnosed dyslexia. In his case, he had a plan and the means to carry it out. Before he went to bed on the fateful night, for some unusual reason, his mom made a point of telling him she loved him. Joe tells me that's all it took; he knew he couldn't cause his mom such incredible grief.

Joe ended up getting counseling. The first counselor tried to molest him, but that didn't stop him or his parents from getting help. The second counselor recognized Joe's disability and consequently changed his life. He graduated high school and went on to college (requiring incredible courage and hard work), and today, Joe is a middle school special ed teacher, making a big difference in the lives of kids.

So, the kids will be off on a new adventure with the musical this summer (and I'll get to go with them as a chaparone!) What a great start to my week!

How was yours?