“He’s Just Like You!!”
by Nicholas P, published on The I UV, on September 1, 2018
Yeah, so I get a text yesterday from a former mentee/current friend who I have this fantastic educational backstory with.
Part of the ed-bootcamp
(I say that with Love, it helped me and a lot of people learn to push way beyond what I thought were my limits, lol, even later on as a Coach….Folks in 5 schools across 3 Boroughs? No problem, who doesn’t Love to travel? . Love and Thanks to this year’s Cohort 31, the energy you carry!! Your kids can’t wait to meet you!
)
involved student teaching in summer school.
There was a student in the class who had a unique (at least to me, lol) name. Still, just one of many students in the classes we trained with that summer. Some awesome individuals those students are, great memories.
Fast forward like a lot of years, working as a Selector, and on a planned weekend of chillin’…and not working, lol, there was a last minute email sent out requesting interviewers for the last event of the season. Though a day off is always welcome, something inside told me to just pick up the shift.
Without getting too much into the selection model, which evolves every year, the assignment of candidates was totally random, depending on who showed up and how many selectors were working. Was running a little late, and as I grabbed my list of candidates, I see the last individual had a unique name (at least to me, lol)…..that I heard one other person have.
Didn’t think anything of it at the time, and just started setting up for the interviews. As I was reviewing the information from the last applicant, they entered the interview room. It was my former summer school trainee student! I first came across her while training, and here she was, years later, interviewing for the program! We both had a ‘haven’t I seen you somewhere before?’ look, but didn’t speak past what the objective of the day was. It was about her and why she wanted to become a teacher.
Awesome!! She ripped the interview, I mean knocked it out of the park, expressing how she went through things as a HS student that kids could relate too, believed ALL students can achieve no matter their backgrounds and income, and how badly she wanted to give back. She was selected into the program (selected herself into the program), and I wished her well. The last random applicant I interviewed on a day I wasn’t even supposed to be working, lol. Nice!
A few months later, in the summer, I was still being Mr. Fellow, lol, doing any and every job possible. One of the participating universities I was assigned to work with was a college in Queens (ok, St. John’s, lol). I’m walking across campus, and who do I see walking to the same building? R!!!
Ok, at this point I had to say something. I mean, student, interviewee, and now training in the group next door to me? We started talking, and while that summer I served as an informal coach for her, we began to connect as friends, and just talk about life. She barely remembers me that training summer (I mean what HS kid is paying attention to trainees, well anything while in summer school?, lol..I kid, shout out to Edison and Einstein’s teachers, the ones who said they weren’t like the other kids and couldn’t learn, ), but had quite an interesting story herself on what drove her to serve kids.
She, well we, lol survived the summer (telling you, that program is no joke!) and we kept in touch after that first…well second summer really, lol.
Fast forward a few years, after a quick stretch in Brooklyn, she’s now teaching in the very High School in Queens where she attended, where I trained and worked after that first summer, and is working towards becoming a school admin. From summer school, to an alternative HS program to graduate on time, to an alternative teacher certification program, now on to school admin. What a model of perseverance and not listening to people telling you you can’t do something. Love it!
She has such a funny, speak your mind energy (know the kind, lol), and our conversations cover a lot of things. She’s a seeker in her own way, open to learning and exploring spirituality, and while it’s different than the trajectory I AM on (not really though, lol), she’s super non judgmental and she’s one of the few people, outside the IUV , that I began to share some of what I thought was happening to me at the time. She definitely thought I was a bit nuts, lol, but she listened to my sharing, and shared some of her beliefs as well.
She’s one of those, ‘pick up where we left off’ folks, and I just have so much Love for who she is as a person, educator, and friend. Cracks me up, and her students absolutely LOVE her (I still have one or two friends in that school, and check in from afar from time
to time-mentor thing).
Now as time has progressed, I realize that I was somewhat “wrong” about some of the insights I had at the time (What up Lisa!
) and was explaining/sharing the tip of the galaxy if you will, lmao. Always a space of Love when we hang, and when I say I was an island before (re)discovering you folks, I am not kidding. So thankful for you ALL!!!
And I wasn’t wrong, lol. Just misunderstood based on where I was at at the time…..no wrong answers!! Lol, my goodness!
As Life has it, we don’t keep in touch as frequently as in the past. Still, I have watched her follow her nudges, and trust herself to make some huge life decisions, and supported her through some ‘rough’ patches that she’s risen way above and beyond. Still, I can tell she integrated some of what I was saying, in the best manner for her to receive it based on where she was at, and vice versa.
So I AM sitting in my little room the other morning, feeling somewhat (small) overwhelmed and feeling like I had nothing to write about (something to be said for listening to your guides, team, Heart, as when I do that things kind of just write themselves and ideas just flow, lol. Outside thought, note to self, ) when I received the following text that made me feel so good, and reminded me that even if you don’t directly see it, the energies and Love you’re putting out is received by many, who in turn create with it from where they’re at. Muy importante to remember, we ALL have a part to play in this!
Now if you knew her, she is totally
Explaining by saying she can’t explain it, in the lol…how awesome is that!!! Times are changing, the ranks are growing, and no worries ever about being “wrong”. Or Small.
Now I may never have met said “He”, lol. Is he “just like me”? Absolutely not, lol, as we’re all individuals with our own setups, but I kind of know what she meant. Yeah, I know what she meant,
We are ALL connected, and I like to think the energies and Love I transmitted in those interview events, and my day to day to the ALL around me sparked something in someone else….and that’s some powerful shit.
It really is impossible to be small once you get to certain places, and you awesome ladies are darn skippy right: Why would you!!! We ALL have so much to offer in these times!!
Thanks for ALL you do, and ALL you are. ALL of you. Much Love from the Q-Borough!!
Nicholas P.
