Teach For America changed my life.
I joined right out of college and ended up teaching at a school in Paterson, New Jersey. Growing up, and even in college, I had never planned to become a teacher. Fifteen years later I'm still in education. Teach For America is what started it all for me.
But TFA had an even more profound impact on my life than launching my career.
It gave me my best friends, Chris, Jason, and Marc. They also ended up in Jersey schools back in 1994, and we quickly bonded. Without our network of four, I'm not sure any of us would have made it through our first two years in the classroom.
Chance may have brought us together, but respect, trust, support, and fun are what made the friendship last. We're now stretched far apart -- Maine, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver -- but we're just as close as ever. If I called up any one of those men right now and asked for a favor, each one would immediately say "Yes," no matter how great the sacrifice.
That's true friendship, and I've got it three times over.
As I began my Christmas Downsize spree, I decided to send a care package to each of those men and their families. I sent Chris' on Friday, Jason's on Saturday, and Marc's today.
His sons get a few Star Wars books (Marc's sons, being well-raised boys, are growing up Star Wars fans), he gets back a basketball jersey from a elementary school team he coached during those first two years of teaching, and they can all fight over the Celtics shirt (Marc, being a well-raised boy, grew up loving the Celtics).
I got the annual fundraising solicitation from Teach For America the other day. Will I donate?
After all the organization has given me, how could I not give back?
No comments:
Post a Comment