FUN FACT:: American Samoa and the Midway Islands are the LAST places on earth to celebrate the new year!
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I meant to post this before Christmas, but it was a struggle trying to sum up my first six months of living and teaching in American Samoa. And then I went to Hawai'i for a week and was distracted....However, here are the seven things that I have learned from my first semester on the island.
1. Don't sweat the small stuff - now obviously I don't
really mean "don't sweat". Because of course that's impossible. My mother thought that Hawai'i was humid, I thought it was pleasantly dry and noticeably cooler than Samoa. What I really mean is to just go along with whatever seems to be happening, and don't be too concerned about how it's all going to work out. Inevitably, it will work out. It might take a long time, and you may have to go in a roundabout way, but eventually things will get done. There may be an assembly called at the last minute, canceling a class that was already behind schedule, the water may be contaminated, sending all the kids home, all the atm's that you stop at may be out of cash, a storm may knock out the wireless internet over your half of the island for a week, or the buses may all stop running because everyone is watching the rugby game, but that's just the way it goes here. The sooner you learn how to just take a deep breath and not worry about it, the happier you will be.
2. Cherish the little things - Sometimes it's my students making me proud. Some days it's getting a box in the mail full of magazines from my mom, or cookies from my grandma, or crazy stuff from my friends and sisters. Other times it's just sitting on the bus driving along the ocean wondering how in the world I got to be living in such a beautiful place. It's the small day to day things that I hope I never forget.
3. Being disconnected from the world is not a horrible thing - I admit, when I first arrived here, I was a bit spoiled. I had internet during orientation, and for a couple months I had it at my house. But when the internet at our house was shut off, I spent a couple weeks freaking out about how I was going to stay connected to everyone back home. Turns out, it's easy for me to check my email at school when classes are out for the day. It's fairly easy for me to go to McDonald's or Carl's Jr for wireless internet (sometimes you have to pay, but it's worth it). But being in my apartment, with no internet, and no tv, and no texting friends in the states is actually nice sometimes.It forces me to spend my time on other things...reading, lesson planning, grading, working out, writing letters, and visiting my friends upstairs. I have been disconnected to the point where I found out about Muammar Gaddafi's death from a tenth grade student. ("Miss, do you know a guy named Gaddafi? He died today.") I didn't know about the Occupy Wall Street movement until I was sent a newspaper in the mail. Thankfully, I was spared the talk about Kim Kardashian's wedding and divorce. When my sister mentions a new song being played on the radio, I have no idea what she's talking about. There are ups and downs to being disconnected, and I really miss watching the Nightly News with Brian Williams, but I have learned to live without a tv and constant internet...which leads me to my next topic...
4. The Things I Can Live Without - include but are not limited to: a television, cable, internet in my apartment, texting friends at home, a microwave, an oven, a full sized refrigerator with working freezer, a car, a large paycheck, air conditioning, hot water, make up, cute clothes and shoes, curling/straightening my hair (it's too hot.. i just put it up..), a variety of reasonably priced produce, taco bell, reliable access to a printer and copy machine, and good italian food.
5. I can live on my own. - I have always been a people person, an extrovert. While I enjoy my quiet alone time, I thrive on being around other people; friends, family, students, co-workers, etc. At my house, there are 2 apartments upstairs, 2 fellow Voc-Tech teachers in one, and the 3 Tafuna teachers in another. Since about September, I have been living in the downstairs apartment on my own. I have never lived by myself, and was a bit unnerved at first. I will admit it took some time to adjust to being alone. However, I have learned a lot about myself and what I need to do to stay happy, healthy, and content without relying on others. I regularly visit my friends upstairs, and Julie comes to stay with me most Fridays, but there are several times when I am just on my own. A few months ago, it was depressing. But now, I love it and plan on finding my own apartment when I move back to Washington.
6. I am so blessed. - This I knew before, but it has been magnified in the last 6 months. I have some awesome friends and an amazing family. I have a mother who saves all the magazines she gets to send to me, and is always ready to sit down on Sunday morning for a long phone call. I have sisters who spend a lot of time finding just the right things to send in care packages. I have a father who is always there to listen to my latest crisis or answer a burning question or just reassure me in general. I have grandparents who stay in touch through letters, and a grandmother brave enough to send me cookies and applesauce in the mail (the cookies made it, the applesauce did not..). I have aunts, uncles, cousins, and community members who check in and encourage me. And then I have my friends. They say that your friends are the family you choose for yourself, but my friends are truly a blessing. I have made some amazing friends here on the island that are always there to hang out, run errands with, or just listen to me vent. They have been there for me through the roughest of times this year, when i would just curl up and cry. And they helped to pull me up when I was down.
I also have a few friends back home who have been incredible. They understand that it's hard for me to be far away and that I feel left out at times. I have friends who send me hilarious emails on a regular basis. I have friends who answer the call from the mysterious phone number late at night. I have friends who've reserved time for skype dates. I have friends who send me little red tractors and cold medicine and ridiculous packages in the mail. I have friends who made themselves available to talk to me for the week I was in Hawai'i with my old phone turned back on. I have friends who regularly check in with me and talk on facebook. I have a friend who is flying down to New Zealand to spend my spring break with me. As much as I wish I could be right there next to them, the support and encouragement of my friends, my family, and my hometown community has been amazing.
7. I am a teacher. - This may sound silly, especially since I majored in education, but it is perhaps the most important thing I have learned about myself since being here. Part of the reason that I applied to WorldTeach was to see if I really had what it took to be a teacher. To see if I really wanted to focus on it as a career. I knew that I loved history, and that I enjoyed working with kids, especially English Language Learners. But I still was not sure if teaching was what I was meant to do. Now, after everything that I have done and struggled with and accomplished since the school year began in August, I know the answer. I am a teacher. It isn't just a job, and it isn't just a title. It's more that just what I do. It is a part of who I am. For someone who originally went into film production, wanting to focus on cinematography, switching to education my sophomore year of college was a huge change. But I can now say, without a doubt, that it was the right one.
The job I have right now, teaching social studies to English language learners, is
exactly what I went to school for,
exactly what I am
trained to do. I am passionate about my subject. I love history. I am a geography nerd. I enjoy going to school. I like the routine of it, I like the atmosphere. But most of all, I love my students. Of course there are days when they drive me nuts, but those are surpassed by the days when they make me ridiculously proud and happy. I like watching them play sports, I like watching them interact, I like joking around with them, and I love the moment when the lightbulb goes on in their heads and they really understand. I love when they thank me for being a good teacher. My heart will break when I say goodbye to them in June and I am thankful that I have 5 more months before that day comes.
I am a teacher. And despite the lack of resources, the unreliable access to a printer or copy machine, the frustration I feel towards the education system on the island, and the days when nothing seems to go right, I know that I if I can teach here, I can teach anywhere. I was meant to do this.
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It's hard to believe that this experience, which I spent the better part of the last 2 years preparing for, is half over. It has been a rollercoaster! To say that my life has been forever changed by this year is a huge understatement. When I was 16, Mike Cantlon was told me that I would not be the same after returning from my People to People trip to Europe. He was right. That trip changed my life, and led me on a path that I am still following to this day. This year is another one of those defining experiences. I know my time here will continue to effect me years after I have said my final goodbye to this beautiful island. People constantly tell me how jealous they are of my life and how lucky I am. But it has nothing to do with luck. Luck is just courage meeting opportunity. I saw an opportunity and I went after it. I did not stop until I got what I wanted. As crazy as it may have seemed to people, I packed my bags and flew off to an island country that I had never been to, with people I had never met, to volunteer for a whole year. I am not lucky. This is just the way I choose to live my life. I encourage everyone out there (whoever may be reading this) to "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined." (Henry David Thoreau). It may be scary, and it won't be easy, but it will be worth it.
Fa soi fua, and Happy New Year!
