Ten years ago was my last year of working at Colon Community Schools. I miss, and I terribly miss, the friends that I made there both staff and students. Unfortunately Colon was at the forefront of many of the programs that I hate in education, much of it taking budgetary concerns out on teachers while increasing the bureaucratic headaches. I was drowning in debt in large part due to the draconian negotiating practices of the school board, and I needed to find another place to go. Many of the emails of that time were in job searches, including the one that landed me my current job at Lincoln.
A surprising number of the emails I came across weren't written by me. I forgot that we were still stuck with dial-up (and were using the Metacafe for a faster connection) and that Janelle was using my email account to communicate with people at the time. Now it feels like we have computers and Internet access everywhere. It's so easy to forget how good we have it.
Some of the emails were to people who I had lost contact with and with whom I was trying to reestablish a connection. In at least one case I succeeded, but in so many others I have obviously fallen short. While applications like Facebook have made keeping in contact with people much easier, I feel like I am losing more friends than I am making.
It still just astounds me how fast my family has grown. Ten years ago, the girls weren't even teenagers, Trevor was Rowen's age, and my two littlest were still years away from being born. A few of my emails referred to how my family was doing, especially my concerns about Trevor's daycare. I am so glad that we have not dealt with daycare since then. More than one income can be nice, and I know that many people rely on daycare and have good experiences with it, but I am so glad that we have not relied on it for the younger two. The cost alone ...
My emails showed me that I was angry with the direction that education was moving. I had no idea. Ironically, they also showed that I didn't like my job as much as I do now. There are still aspects of education that make me feel like I'm having my life choked from me, but I am in a much better place when it comes to being in the classroom from day to day. I hope that feeling only improves over the next ten years.
There were also a number of emails that dealt with me trying to get studios and agents to read my script: The Mark of the Wizard (I prefer the title The Rogue and the Bride). I sent out hundreds of letters and received less than nine responses, and only one was positive. I still think it would make a good movie. As fantasy has become more a part of mainstream culture, I fear that it might not stand out as much (since the competition has certainly improved), but I would still like to actually see it on the big screen.
All in all, the past ten years have been good to me. Who knows what the next ten will bring?