Some times you feel like a Yup

So tomorrow will be my first day on payroll as a full time teacher at George Rogers Clark Elementary School. I will be teaching students from the 6th-8th grades in social studies as well as a class in writing and a class called Reading 180. Mr. Monroe will be my alias while in the school for those of you who don't already know.

Due to the fact that this is a paid position, I now technically qualify as a "professional" teacher. And given that I am young and live in the city of Chicago I am also a "young urban." These characterizations do not make me happy. I now live in a world in which exercising, drinking San Pellegrino, and walking a dog that is too big for my apartment are the norm. Gone are my days of semi-unemployment and comfort bumming around the city every weekday and freakin weekend. No longer will I spend my pay days walking in the sun and rain, but I must now work straight through them or PD the heck out of the day. My bank account may subsequently die from a lack of activity. It typically expects constant and unabashed losses.

So put up your micro brewed beer that no one has heard of and few care to drink and toast to Mr. Monroe for his entrance into the life of a yuppie.

One day, all teachers will get placed in Chicago

Although I was skeptical of my chances for employment the further we went into the 2009 school year in Chicago, I must say (with a self-congratulatory tone might I add) that I accepted employment this morning at George Rogers Clark on Chicago's West Side.

I will be teaching social studies as well as reading and writing. I do not anticipate this to be a small task, but I must also confess that this is exactly the position that I was looking for. I couldn't be more well equipped to teach these subjects in that they are the ones at which I recently excelled as a student.


Finally, my dream can be lived out. Big shout out to the people working downtown in Teach For America Chicago. They have done quite a bit to ensure that the title of this blog post comes true.

I remember listening to a story told by Charles Barkley about a dinner he had with Ramsey Lewis. Regarding fame and wealth, the Chicago-born legend (and graduate of the same high school as my father), told the Round Mound of Rebound that once you get to the top it's your duty to send that elevator back down. And while I have accomplished next to nada in my short experience on this earth, I do think that teaching will at least allow me to send the elevator back down from my first floor vantage point and pick up children and help them get to the top themselves.

Don't forget to wash behind your ears

Although I have always found bathing to be one of the more enjoyable and peaceful times of my day, I do find the process of beginning and ending a bath/shower to be cumbersome.

First, the transition from dry to wet can at times be shocking. The control you once had with dryness gets taken away with every drop of water.

Second, as a bath man I find no other feeling in the world as stinging as a cold tub on the back. It's like taking a forty pound popsicle and plopping it on your 98.6 degree (or not depending on how familiar you are with biology) back. Ouch!

Third, the drying off process sucks. In the winter time it is especially annoying to leave the warm nest of the tub and live life in the tundra that is your bathroom. How about that for motivation to get to work?


Anyway, I'd love to see some of the world's great thinkers get together to tackle this worldwide dilemma. Time for me to scruba dub!

This is the picture in front of Times Square of Blog posts

It seems that most people who go to New York City inevitably come back with a picture in front of the billboards on Times Square. Having gone there a few summers ago and refusing beforehand to take such a picture, I can attest to the fact that taking the picture is somewhat of a necessity. Hey, if everyone else is doing it then it's got to be right, right?

Anyway, bloggers seem to abide by the same mindset in posting their inaugural blogs that often tell about themselves and why they have decided to start the blog. And while I have debated both blogging in the first place as well as what my first post would be I, like my fellow New York tourists, have chosen to follow the crowd. I'll keep it short though (that's what he said).

I sit here before you typing away strictly due to my motivation to leave something behind. And though I would like to abide by the Harry Truman method of journal writing, this seems to be a more fun and interesting way to share out my thoughts. The likelihood of having any readers is small, but my mark is now left. For anyone who cares to delve into the contents of this blog will find some wacky and passionate views on the world and life.

Leave logic and reason at the door.