Thank You (A TMC post)

I wasn't going to write a blog post today. I was going to take a day to sleep, do laundry, sleep and reorient myself to being at home. But I was going through my emails I've ignored for the past week and was curious how many TMC emails I'd sent/received since TMC 15. And then I somehow ended up writing you all a love letter. Here it is:

In the past year I have:

• Created, edited and re-edited 50 google docs
• Sent/read 215 email conversations. (Longest conversation contained 54 emails!)
• Written and responded to countless tweets
• Had so many phone conversations; Lisa is by far the person I talk to the most on the phone other than my mother.

All leading up to a whirlwind weekend of amazingness. All weekend when people asked how I was, I answered "Fantabulous!" Even after this happened to my sleep schedule:

I did get a nap Monday afternoon, and slept on all the planes Tuesday!

Sometimes people in my life outside of this community look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that I'm traveling to see my twitter colleagues, or that I put time into organizing this conference. And sure I whine when my inbox is full or I have to spend yet another hour reformatting some spreadsheet. But the whole time I am working, I am simultaneously remembering events of TMC's past and imagining how wonderful TMC future will be. I hardly took any photos this trip, (luckily the rest of you did so I can steal them!) and I think that it's because I was enjoying being in the moment too much to stop and take a photo. I did manage to capture this candid at lunch:

It's particularly appropriate because we talked about remembering: I got a growth mindset lecture from Sean on learning names. I may not be good at remembering names (yet!) but I do remember the experiences. And they carry me through the year.

As I sat with Rachel, Dave and Sean into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, working on the TMC anthem, there were two moments that stood out:

Jonathan walked into the room to hang out, and at that particular moment we were all silently staring at our screens. He looked around and commented something along the lines of, "You really are working on the song." (So I obviously welcomed him by putting him to work finding photos I still needed.) 

Rachel said that even though we weren't getting a chance to catch up on each others lives, she was glad we were spending time together.

Most of the time we weren't just staring at our own screens, we brainstormed and laughed and enjoyed reliving all the memories of the weekend. But even when we were each doing our own thing, we were sitting in the same room and working on something we knew our community would love. That time is a memory I will cherish.


All of this to say, it has been, and continues to be, an honor to work for and with this community. Every time someone said "Thank you" to me this weekend, I replied with a thank you of my own. Thank you for taking the moment to express appreciation (check out #TMCTY). Thank you for attending TMC. Thank you for being a part of this community. Thank you for being an educator who shares my passion for professional growth. Thank you for being not only my colleague, but also my friend.