full circle

ever since i can remember, i've wanted to be a teacher. even in preschool when i was asked what i wanted to be when i grew up, and everyone around me had fascinating ambitions like dinosaur tamers and ice skaters and astronauts and circus performers, i held fast. my area of discipline would often change -- some days i thought i'd pursue music education, others inspired me to focus on creative writing -- but at every point in my life, i just knew that God had called me to teach.

it was on the day that i stepped foot into my sixth grade math class that i decided that i would become a math teacher, and i never looked back. in the sixth grade, my math teacher was mrs. wall. out of all the stellar teachers i've had in my life, mrs. wall will always remain one of my favorites. she was funny, she was kind, she was interesting, and she was an excellent educator. long after i left the hallowed halls of apex elementary, i kept in touch with her. we would get together for dinner when i was home for breaks from college, i'd pick her brain for advice while i was student teaching, and i even interviewed her for a college paper i had to write. and it was mrs. wall who set in motion one of the most important meetings i would ever have. when i called her to share my news of accepting a teaching position up in alexandria after graduation, she asked me, "do you know chris mann?" it turned out that one of her son's best friends was also moving up to the DC area, and she thought it would be a grand idea for us to meet. "i'm going to give him your number," she told me. "promise me you'll talk to him!" and so, when he called me up a few weeks later, i did.

it is a little mind-blowing to contemplate how different my entire life would be, had apex elementary school in 1985 randomly assigned me to some other math teacher's roster.

thirteen years after i was a student in her math class, mrs. wall was at my wedding, and her son was one of our groomsmen. and a few pews away from her, across the aisle, sat stacey holladay.

that year, i was a sixth grade math teacher myself, and stacey holladay was one of my students. i still remember the first time i met her, as a bubbly eleven-year old with wavy brown hair and a beatific smile, who walked into my fourth period class in august of 1998. and, much like i did with mrs. wall, i have kept in close touch with stacey long after she left the hallowed halls of dillard drive middle. she has gone on to do great things: she graduated magna cum laude from nc state, secured a fantastic job, and became engaged to an equally amazing young man named jonathan.

and, thirteen years after she was a student in my math class, i was at her wedding. and my children, who count miss stacey as their favorite babysitter ever, were her program attendants.

i don't personally know any dinosaur tamers or ice skaters or astronauts or circus performers, but i can't imagine any profession receiving back more than teaching. i sat there at stacey's wedding and felt it fitting that thirteen years ago, part of the curriculum i taught stacey and the other girls around me focused on circles. we circled together later for pictures, my arms linked with young women -- a nurse, a marine biologist, an HR professional, and a fellow teacher -- peers of mine by now, but who all still call me mrs. mann. just as i will always call mrs. wall, my sixth grade teacher, mrs. wall.

and i realized what a full circle moment it was.