Teach For America

One of my best friends is moving. To New Jersey. Which is apparently very very far away from Texas. She is going to be in Newark. If you live in Newark and you see a very small brunette person who looks kind of homesick, be nice to her. She is Teaching for America and I am very very proud of her. All 4'10" of her is moving to the armpit of New Jersey to teach underprivileged inner city kids how to read at a 7th grade level when most of these kids are at least 2 grade levels behind. She is leaving all of her friends and her family and although she is trying to be brave I can tell she is nervous about this. I'm going to miss her. I'm going to miss how she calls everyone "buddy." I'm going to miss how I can call her when I'm upset and without even saying "hi" can launch into my tirade and have her listen patiently until I am done and feel much better. I'm going to miss one of us going "I love Dr. Lesser" whenever the other mentions seeing him (our favorite English professor) on campus. I'm going to miss tripping over each other to explain to everyone our mantra of "pumps, pencil skirt, pearls, and a PhD." What I'm going to miss most of all is how, after three years of doing most everything together, we have to go it alone from here on out. Miss Schuman, I'm going to miss you.