It's official!

As of yesterday, I have a new job! Well, actually, I officially accepted the job on Monday, but the Headmaster announced it Friday in the faculty meeting, so now people know about it, which makes it feel real for the first time.

So, it's not a completely new job. First of all, I'm staying with the same school at which I now teach. We love it here, and even though it's a really, really, REALLY long commute for Jeremy to school, it also gives us free housing, which we can't really afford to forgo when I'll be the only one with a paycheck for a few years. Also, some things are staying the same. I will still be coaching at least one season (the second is sort of up in the air right now) and I will still be running a dorm.

Most importantly, I will still be teaching one class, which, the longer I thought about this transition, was the one thing that I knew I absolutely did not want to let go of completely. Teaching has been full of ups and downs for me the past few years, and I've never been sure it will be a lifelong career for me, but I know that I'm not ready to completely leave it behind just yet. Luckily, all parties involved were kind enough to let me insist on keeping one class, and I feel sort of ridiculously privileged that it is my absolute favorite class that I get to keep. I love all of my classes for many reasons, but this one (ninth grade honors) is full of motivated, inquisitive students, energetic discussions, and intellectual text upon intellectual text. As my department chair says, "It's the best class in the whole school,"and it gets to be mine.

So what is this new position I'm making such a gosh-darned big deal about? Well, starting next year (or now?), I will be venturing head-first, full speed, and (probably) screaming into the glamorous world of college counseling. I'll be running workshops where I help them with their applications, writing recommendations, meeting with college reps, and chasing kids down to wrest all manner of information from their soon-to-be-senioritis-riddled brains. I know that sounds like a nightmare to some, but you know what? I LOVE that stuff, even the chasing kids down part. Of course, you'll have to check back with me in a year so I can bitterly laugh at my astounding naivete, but if the work is anything like what I did when I was a college Admissions Counselor, I can't wait.

I have a lot of details to work out about the day-to-day stuff, but I do know two things:

• I will have my own office. I realize that doesn't register very high on the cool-o-meter for most people, but for me - it pretty much doesn't get any better than that.
• I get to go to Harvard this summer. Okay, so it's only a week and I'm not even entirely sure it will be on the actual campus, but at the end I get a certificate! A certificate that says "Harvard"!

So! That's the news; it's been brewing for a long time, and I'm excited that it finally is resolved, because for a long time it looked like it wasn't going to happen. Sorry if you were expecting something a little more earth-shattering than that (most people seem to be these days), but honestly, I couldn't be more excited.