The End...sort of....!

Blog Entry:  May 19, 2015!!

Ok, ok….so I’m not writing here on a regular basis.  So fire me!  It’s my blog and my time…or lack thereof.  But alas!  School has ended and I’m in the process of packing up my classroom, my house, and another school year.  Let’s see if I can figure this out….I just finished my 34^th year of teaching in a regular education classroom.  Add to those two years of Co-op Nursery School and one year of subbing.  Yup, I’m still at it….I will be returning to Shishmaref for the coming school year…still in third grade.

As for my blog, I have some time tonight while watching the next to the last show of the David Letterman Show.  Boy, there are lots of things coming to an end lately.  I’m not so sure I like that.  Time marches on and I’m having a hard time keeping up.  Maybe it has something to do with the torn meniscus I acquired after my first year here…and haven’t had repaired yet.  Let me just complain for a minute….insurance companies and medical providers who don’t submit claims in a timely fashion irk the heck out of me….!!!  Long story….aren’t they all?  I definitely have stories to tell.  I should write a book….in my “spare” time.

I found myself following “The Voice” this year.  That’s not something I normally do but hey….Joshua Davis is from Traverse City, Michigan and I was enjoying his performances.  He’s really good.  Sorry he didn’t win but it was still quite a run.  I especially enjoyed the opportunity to work on jigsaw puzzles while watching TV.  Ahhh….life in remote Alaska!

Alaska….remote Alaska…”bush Alaska”….as in Shishmaref, Alaska….100 miles from Russia across the Chukchi Sea…15-20 miles south of the Arctic Circle….located on the Sarichef Island which is washing away into the sea.  Someday it will not exist…and neither will I.  Morbid thought….or just acceptance of reality!

That, my friends, is what I want to talk about in this blog entry….change and endings….and how life goes on.  For example, both of my favorite late night talk shows are done (Craig Ferguson and David Letterman).  But you know what?  There are other talk hosts and shows to take their place.  I might not like them as much or even at all….so what?  Life goes on.

Joshua Davis didn’t win….darn it.  But guess what?  I would bet that he will still find great success in his singing/song writing career.  And what the heck….he was given a new car!  Life goes on.

My long teaching career in East Jordan came to an end in 2011.  I certainly have some comments on that but….not here!  Nevertheless, life goes on and I’m now fulfilling a quest by teaching in another culture in remote Alaska.  As a result, I, too, am fulfilled.

HOWEVER….teaching up here in Shishmaref has required me to face “endings” that I find hard to do.  Because it is such a small village, I know a lot of people…if not by name, at least by face, wave and smile.  I’m known as “Ahna Donna” up here and once I leave, that will most likely end as well.  I have embraced the nickname.  I’ll miss it.  I will also miss the people…adults and kids.  I will wonder about them when I am finally back home in the comforts of life in the Lower 48.  I will think about them dumping their honey buckets into the honey bins while I flush my toilet.  I will think about them playing out late at night in the sunshine while I am standing out on my deck gazing up at the stars in the blackened sky.  I will think about them during the week between Christmas and New Year’s knowing they are having the time of their lives with the traditional Eskimo games, sled dog races and awards ceremonies.  I will think about them when I see the Northern Lights.  I will think about them when I listen to folks down in the Lower 48 complain about hunting seals and polar bears and wonder if I should try to explain what that means to people who live a subsistence lifestyle. 

That end is coming….eventually.  It’s not here yet….but it’s coming.  I miss my own kids….even though they are adults with lives of their own.  I’ve missed them…and four years of spending time together.  There’s a price to every decision.  Life has definitely gone on while I’ve been up here.

I’ll be going home soon, knowing that one of my best friends is not there anymore.  She passed away last summer.  Several of my friends and family members passed away since I’ve been up here.  Endings…and life goes on.

This year, another sort of ending has affected me…and after four years of going through it, I now understand it for what it is.  Teaching in this remote village means that teachers come and go.  Some stay longer than others….but most come and go.  This year was no exception.  We did have retirements though of three local staff members…one after 40 years of being part of the school…40 years.  And still….his career came to an end.  Another end…and more change.  

We are losing five other staff members this year, too.  That, folks, is what finally hit me this year.  Other teachers have left in the past four years and it was just sort of a “fact of life in Shishmaref.”  I still keep in touch with some of them….friends I wouldn’t have met had I not come to Shishmaref.  Nevertheless, nothing lasts forever.  The turnover is hard on the students.  They find it hard to build a trusting relationship with the teachers because we leave…we don’t stay.  It’s a fact of life up here.  I have recognized the difficulty some of the students have because they will begin asking you a few weeks before school is out, “Are you coming back?”  Folks you meet out in the village will quickly ask the same question, “Are you coming back?”  Well, I am….but some of my fellow teachers are not….and this year, I felt the loss.  I don’t like it….I don’t like change and I don’t like endings…..

The End…..and so it goes….life goes on! 

(BTW...I wrote this on May 19....and I just posted it on May 20.  It took me that long to figure out how to get logged in to my own blog....ha!)