First Week of Teaching (!!), The Martian, and The Arkansas Diner: Week 3

August 20, 2017

Two of my amazing coworkers (my mentor, Kate, on the left and Jenny on the right) and I on our first day!

I just finished my first week of teaching! Victory! Picture me slumping back into the couch and kicking off my shoes.

Now, picture me sitting up in a panic as I realize I've assigned homework that students do not have the access to complete and attempt to put out the ensuing fire.

This week was all about a hundred things at once: making a good first impression, learning about my students, getting used to the schedule, being prepared for class every period of every single day, figuring out the copy machine, learning my students' names, setting up classroom parameters, holding it all together, getting enough sleep, not working at home if I could help it, still asking questions, still trying to learn new things each day, trying desperately to learn my students' names, not getting homesick, breathing, praying, reminding myself that teaching is a learning process by itself, and wearing shoes without backs on them because I gave myself a blister trying out a brand new pair of shoes the first day.

Did I mention I keep messing up students' names?

Phew.

Now, I understand a teensy bit better why so many new teachers quit in the first 3-5 years. NOTE: this is NOT to say that I am not psyched to be here and that I don't love my job so far! This place is amazing and these people that I'm blessed to call coworkers and co-heirs with Christ support me at every turn. Also, my students are AMAZING. They're hardworking and driven and amazing humans.

The display for the MAK Shark Post, the school newspaper!
The club fair on Thursday showed off the many clubs MAK offers, most of which are run entirely by students!

It's just that I've only gotten a taste of what the job is like, and if that taste is anything like the rest of the gulp, I have spiritual battles to wage.

Sometimes, I feel completely qualified to teach. Other times, I'm too busy trying to figure out how I am going to keep my assignments organized or my students well-rounded or my classroom management style consistent to feel like a "real teacher."

I get that it's early. I get that I'm in transition right now and could be feeling a range of emotions entirely due to it. But I also remember that I'm here for a purpose put before me, and the enemy likes to go after you when you're at your weakest.

But God...

When Paul was being tormented and asked God to take away the torment, this happened:

A picture of Jesus washing the disciples' feet that
hangs in the stairwell of a church we checked out!
It's surreal seeing a familiar passage illustrated in a different way.

"... he said to me,'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."- 2 Corinthians 12:9b-10.

Paul accepted God at the strangest dichotomy, that Christ's power would be greatest in us when we are at our weakest. The God of the universe who made himself a foot-washer says that His power is perfect when we are at our lowest. Now, I know I'm not at my weakest; I have an amazingly supportive staff/community/friend group, I have my needs met and then some, and my view when I wake up in the morning spoils me. However, I'm starting to get why Bonnie said we would be mourning the loss of our old lives.

I recently finished reading The Martian by Andy Weir. I kept it out from my packed up personal library because it was lightweight and I figured it would be a gripping read for a long flight. I didn't know it would be so intensely relatable. I chewed on the narrative in bits and pieces since I got on that one-way flight to a few days ago.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie (warning: foul language), the book (also warning: also foul language) details the story of Mark Watney, an astronaut presumed to be dead gets left behind on Mars by accident. He survives for almost 2 years on Mars before he's rescued by his old crew who turned back to save him.

The story tasted similar to mine not because I'm alone here. That couldn't be farther from the truth. It felt similar because I'm bouncing between confidence and fear, contentment and dépaysement.

But Christ's power is made perfect when I feel like I'm on Mars just trying to survive.

Lord, thank you for bringing me along.

P.S. Speaking of hankering for the home country, Wade and Rachel offered to take the hill folk and I to a special restaurant to celebrate my first full week of teaching: The Arkansas Diner!

It opened in Kaohsiung in 2015 and is about to open its second location. The owner is a Jonesboro-native named Landis, an international businessman who decided there was a market for southern food in Taiwan.

We chatted for a long time about the Razorbacks, Glenn Campbell, and Little Rock (did you know its sister city is Kaohsiung?!).

It was such a small thing in the grand scheme of much much bigger things, but it was sheer joy biting into a shredded pork BBQ sandwich and taking a swig of sweet nectar, Dr. Pepper. I might have teared up. Others may say it was sheer coincidence that an Arkansan would start a restaurant years before I would come to Kaohsiung, but I know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Now, more pictures!