I have not been to the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting. I usually save my travel time and dollars for the NWP’s Urban Sites conference (Boston this year!). However, longing keeps accosting me.
Mostly because I follow people on Twitter who keep talking about it, and they happen to be people who inspire me, push me to think harder about my practice, my professionalism, and my students. I know that if I went, I’d come back re-energized and remembering that I’m not alone.
I could use that right now.
There’s a funny thing about the teacher conversations that end up being really transformative. They’re never about finding answers. Sometimes it’s about asking the right questions, but more often it’s that new idea or perspective that sparks insight and lights up my mind.
I’m driven by curiosity, but epiphany encompasses more than just the shiny new. If you don’t know it exists, you can’t know what you want. Sometimes even if you do know it’s there; you can forget. It’s the little pings, reminders of that to which we aspire, that flames the forge, and tempers the steel of our resolve.
The delight of social networking is that the source of my longing is also it’s cure. Sure following the tweets and blog posts from #nwpam10 will not be the same as being there, but it’s also not the same as staying here.
Shullamuth Ballinger 