School Network

Aside from a few classes these last years through Adult Education at Essex Community College (Yoga; Fitness; World's Best Biscotti; Cooking Appetizers, etc.), I have not attended school for about 27 years.  But WOW, I really have a School Network following my progress and helping my family and friends.  My sister's children currently attend, St. Michael the Archangel School in Overlea; The Catholic High School of Baltimore, and Archbishop Curley High School, but my sister also has a lot of connections to Elmwood Elementary School.     There are a couple of of my sisters' school network buddies that have been dealing with their own battles against cancer and I deeply appreciate their continued advice and home remedies and experiences with the various side effects to all these treatments.  The taste of chewing on rust the other day during Chemo #2 almost took me down, but I got through it (I knew that it had plagued another tough woman and that she did not allow it to take her down - I gathered her strength to me and she helped me through some tough moments.   The School Network has also sent me many prayers and positive thoughts and some emails that made me laugh so hard that I almost burst.  What a great group of people! 

Aside from my sister's children's schools, my own alma maters have been pulling for me - I have heard from childhood friends from Brehms Lane Elementary School; Furley Elementary School; Herring Run Jr. High School; Lake Clifton Sr. High School, Loyola College in Maryland (now Loyola University Maryland).  A favorite high school biology teacher and dear friend visited me the other day - she taught me "Ecology of the Chesapeake Bay" over 30 years ago and is still working for the Baltimore City Public School System.  It is strange, but most of the schools that I attended, do not even exist anymore, but in the collective memories of the students, teachers and staff that passed through their halls.  It is amazing what the power of FaceBook, Classmates and other such cyber space stuff can bring together (I just don't want to show up on YouTube!).   (PS:  I am really exercising the brain - just remembering the names of all those schools is difficult in the best of circumstances!) 

I seem to have a bunch of other School Network connections - lots of teachers in my network of friends - a special thanks to each and every teacher - I am positive that if given enough time, I could name every teacher that I have ever had in school and what they taught me.  I especially thank the teachers that taught me to love to read and appreciate books.  Books and stories were always my friends - some of my favorite childhood memories are trips to the library.  My sister will tell the stories of "ratting me out" to my parents when I would sit up with a flashlight in the bathroom as a small child reading a book well after bedtime (and yes, I did things like that when I was in college too). As a small child, my fantasy house had a big library/den with giant window seats for reading and books from floor to ceiling.  Hmm - I never did get a house with its own library - I might need to work on that!