Beyond the Dirt Path

It's hard to explain. The only way in which I can articulate this sensation is like a grip, a hold, or a harness. Perhaps crazy glue, a leash, or a handcuff would further suffice. It's rumbling within me. It's calling me by my first, middle, and last name. The dirt roads of Central America and beyond are wooing me back into relationship, and I want to respond.You know you are created for more. You know you have a deep seated purpose when things bigger and further extended are beckoning. When the songs of impossibility sing hymns to your soul you become engrossed, enchanted, hypnotized.I'm reading a book right now called, The Promise of a Pencil by Adam Braun. He narrates his journey beyond the common path. He discusses how a semester at sea changed the trajectory of his life when he became exposed to different parts of the world as he never knew. His awakening took place in the slums of India where he asked a very poor child who was begging a transformative question. He asked this boy through a local translating for him, "If you could have anything in the world, what would that one thing be?" This boy was not limited to any response. It was, hence, a limitless question. His response ellicited a revolution in Adam's heart. The boy in feeble response whispered..."a pencil." That. Was. It. Pencils of Promise, a non-profit that erects schools and trains teachers in 3rd world countries was birthed soon thereafter. Adam eloquently stated after this encounter, "Purpose can manifest itself from so many different places, but it most often appears through the small things that enable us to feel connected to a broader whole." I'm in the process of trying to join their Guatemala team of volunteers. I also created a fundraising page to raise 500 for the next school by Pencils of Promise. I will volunteer with them one day. They speak to the fibers of my angst to be part of a larger, educational purpose. I'll find a way.A holy envy resonated within me. I too long to pass out pencils to empower as many people, no, as many learners as I can as my obligation as a trained teacher...and even now college professor. I feel it my civic duty to speak of and spread forth like wild flames locally and abroad the power of education, and its ability to snatch others from the debilitating disease of poverty.The faces of mi lindo El Salvador still bang on the door of my destiny. Each backpack I ever passed out, each pencil ever distributed was equivalent to food and water for the mind. Translating into systems of sustainability, the real help would happen in their ability to defend and sustain themselves long after the missionary returned home. That is what the power of learning can facilitate. Education be it a weapon we in the Western world constantly take for granted.

I'm established for more. The aching wails of foreign soil chant my re-enagement. Thus, my search. I'm searching for ways to re-engage what I know will be one of my biggest contributions to this world. Not to neglect my local contributions as well. My newest assignment is home in my own community in a school that is in desperate need of care and compassion. God has sent me into a learning environment that is over 90 percent Latino, low income, and with the qualifications of free or reduced lunch for nearly all of the student body. No central air, and mice that rummage the halls and classrooms. I called my classroom mouse Jorge. Until he got trapped in a sticky trap and was nice and dead upon my return from Christmas break. And you know what, it is perfect. It is a perfect fit. My kids are beautiful and powerful to me. They beat the odds all day long, they fight for their education, and long to be first or second generation graduates. That's where I know I can make a difference, create change, igniting a desire to stretch potential in my own community. After the first year there, they stretched my own potential. Indeed, they taught me. I also came in contact with some of the most dedicated teachers and administrators I had ever met. That's what's up, as my students say. Those are my kids, my home turf, my mission field, my reach for tomorrow's leaders and champions. I'm building here at home too.

As of late, an online opportunity has afforded me. I'm now a college professor for an online teacher preparation program called TEACH-NOW. I have adult learners who want to join the band of brotherhood, a sacred selection of human beings that will one day be called teacher. I get to instill in them my passion, my profound concern, and my illustrious love for every student that will walk into my classroom, and theirs. That is a privilege I hold sacred. My classroom just blew open, breaking invisible boundaries held by space, time, and passports. I have students from Hawaii, Korea, and DC to name some. Wow. I'm in route, I'm in route to global education. They called me Professor Gonzalez. At first, I cringed. I felt unworthy. I also felt like saying, "Just call me Mrs. G. like my high school kids call me." Felt more comfortable. Yet, when life graduates you, you follow suit. I reply to Professor, indeed that's what I am.I will return, reconnect, re-emerge. I'm relentless, resilient, and concentrated. "He who began a good work will finish it..." Feeling sorry for whatever both tangible and intangible will try to stop me.