Dakar, Senegal: Day 1 & Day 2
For as long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with maps and design plans. I would pour over old National Geographic magazines to discover distant lands (or even galaxies) and imagine myself there, and sometimes getting there was the best part! I was the kid with his parent in the checkout line asking for the latest copy of Architectural Digest instead of a pack of M&Ms. I'd steal my dad's copy of Grand Traverse Living when he wasn't around and imagine what my house would look like one day. On long family road trips, I would sit in the front seat, awake at 2am marveling at how multiple highways could crisscross and intersect without tumbling into one another. I'd help my mom plot our course. Something about imagining the reality of a place made me want to get up and go.
My parents always valued education, and going new places and trying new things was part and parcel of that. Given the opportunity, I've never said "no" to a new adventure. I suppose this makes me the consummate geek, learning for the sake of learning--something I swore in middle school I'd never be or do. Oh well. At this point in my life, I can't imagine it any other way, and frankly, it's fun. In another life, I may have been an explorer, an adventurer, an architect or maybe a cartographer sketching a newly discovered finch with Darwin or detailing the topography of uncharted territories. But right now I'm sitting on the "other" side of the Atlantic Ocean 3,818 miles from home and I realize that I AM some of those things, but mostly I'm a teacher. And the best part about being a teacher? I get to share all those adventures and newly discovered places and call it my job.
My parents always valued education, and going new places and trying new things was part and parcel of that. Given the opportunity, I've never said "no" to a new adventure. I suppose this makes me the consummate geek, learning for the sake of learning--something I swore in middle school I'd never be or do. Oh well. At this point in my life, I can't imagine it any other way, and frankly, it's fun. In another life, I may have been an explorer, an adventurer, an architect or maybe a cartographer sketching a newly discovered finch with Darwin or detailing the topography of uncharted territories. But right now I'm sitting on the "other" side of the Atlantic Ocean 3,818 miles from home and I realize that I AM some of those things, but mostly I'm a teacher. And the best part about being a teacher? I get to share all those adventures and newly discovered places and call it my job.
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