The Road Map
People have asked me what makes Andrew’s IB school different from regular schools. I can’t say that I know the answer to that entirely because I don’t have any other (recent) public school experience to compare it to. But I do know that in addition to the regular stuff, they do IB themes and right now the focus is “Where we are in Place & Time”. The students are working on personal histories and Andrew had to select pictures from important events in his life to write about. As I was helping him select pictures it made me start thinking and then on the way to pick him up from school today my mind was wandering and I started imagining life from beginning to end laid out like a road map. Then I thought metaphorically about what certain events are like in that context. Like, sometimes you are lost and wandering off the map, sometimes you are steady on paved road. There are times it feels like you are being dragged off the back of a runaway horse or trudging through quick sand and times when you’re floating above it all in a hot air balloon on a sunny day.
And since it’s a rather long drive I had time to ponder where I am in all of this. I’ve been actually thinking about that a lot lately though not quite in the same context. I think I’m on a bridge right now. I’m not sure how long the bridge is but I know it’s taking me from one major life event to another. Sometimes the sea is calm and other times stormy, blowing over the side rails but I feel like the bridge is strong and sturdy. I just have to figure out where it’s taking me. Will I know when I have arrived? Will there be another bridge ahead or something altogether new?
It’s interesting how that works, isn’t it? I like where I am right now but I know I’m not just staying here. I know I’m always progressing forward, following the map, sometimes straying but hoping to avoid too many potholes.
I appreciate that my child’s kindergarten work makes me think this way. I can only hope to keep up in the future!