Turning the page.....again.

So my previous post was over a week ago, bemoaning my seeming inability to sit and write a blog post.  9 days later, I sit here again at the keyboard, contemplating just what seems to be getting in my way.....and here's what I think it is:

Life.

Life keeps getting in my way.

I started this blog as a way to document my experience of training for the Boston Marathon, while raising money for the Melanoma Foundation of New England.  Along the way, I discovered the joy of reading the blogs of others, and surprisingly enough to me, some people decided to come along for the ride and started reading MY blog!  The focus on that effort (and knowing that people were actually reading what I was writing!) gave me all the motivation I needed to post regularly.

And then I ran the damn thing.......well, maybe "survived" it would be a more apt description, but either way, that period of my life ended.

The following week, I went back to my classroom and in spite of the enormity of the event, Boston started to fade from prominence.  Soon, it was back to the daily grind of lesson planning, meetings, behavioral issues, tests, and everything else that comes along with being a middle-school Social Studies teacher trying to make the events of the 19th century relevant to 8th graders.

And while I got back to running, the training plan was done, the focus was gone, and the running stories became much less compelling.  I found it increasingly difficult to make the little time it takes to sit here and do exactly what I'm doing now.

I've got another marathon coming up in October....if you're reading this, then you've seen the countdown clock in the upper right-hand corner of the page.  My new training plan for Hartford starts in 9 days, and I know that will provide me with the focus I need to get writing again.  In between now and then, I'm chaperoning our 8th grade trip to Washington, DC next week......24 faculty and about 240 8th graders.  It's my 7th year going on our annual trip, but this will be our first time going to DC.  As a history teacher, I cannot be more excited to experience this with my students, seeing them make the connections to the events they've been learning about all year.  When they see the founding documents at the National Archives, I'm hoping they'll grasp the significance of what the words "We, the People..." and "we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal" actually mean.  I strive so hard every year to try to make those meanings accessible and relevant to these teenagers, but next week, I might actually get to see it in their faces........should be fun!

I'll be doing A LOT of walking next week, as we're hitting the Mall, all the monuments, Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, the National Zoo, and the Smithsonians (Air & Space, Natural History, American History), but I'm also going to try to hit the 'mill in the hotel every morning......well, I'll try!

Soon, the school year will end, and I'll start the preparations for the coming school year, while simultaneously ramping up my marathon training.  Either way, I know I'm going to have plenty to blog about.........so stay tuned, my loyal readers, and you'll be rewarded!