This is my shout out.
My Hillbrook and PACT families see me not just as a teacher or coworker. Though I'm not on a campus and technically have no teaching position in my future, these two schools define what it is to be a community. They have coordinated meals, rides, visits and inspired me with letters and phone calls. At the beginning of my treatment, I invited many of them to a send off party and was flabbergasted when they arrived with gift bags of things to keep me occupied while I was undergoing treatment. My teaching partner from two years ago, Susanna, calls me about once a month, just to chat, no other reason, and I love her for it, she has no idea how much I look forward to that phone call. Four years have passed since I became a part of PACT, and though it was short lived, the connections have lasted and remain some of the strongest friendships I have. If I'm not invited to take pictures before prom, I will be insulted. My Hillbrookians simply make me feel as though I am on a long weekend, expecting me to come back just as soon as I'm able. This normalcy in a year of nowhere near normal is indescribable.
A subset of my PACT family are what I fondly refer to as my Neighborhoodlums, they call themselves the SHABsters. Simply put, my neighbors are why our housing prices are so high, they are worth their weight in gold. They cook dinner and set it on my porch, give me rides to the doctor with no notice and send their children to fold my laundry. I'd have it no other way. I can't wait to be able to help them out they way they have cared for me.
Chavurad. Our rabbi set up a group from our synagogue, made up of couples with one Jewish and one non Jewish partner. They have visited me in the hospital, made plans for me to look forward to and kept our online community alive and well. Their support from a distance has really kept my spirits up.
When Shac and I first started dating, we would regularly enjoy 'Thirsty Thursday' with his coworkers and their significant others. Throughout the years, this tradition has faded and the guys have started to work at different companies. Somehow, we still maintain these friendships. The ladies that started out as girlfriends to these guys that couldn't stop talking about work, have become wives and mothers. Their friendship means the world to me. Just quick check ins, emails of pictures of the babies that growing up far too fast and brunch have replaced those beverage nights. Our rounds of holiday parties have already begun, I can't wait to be in their houses and company again.
I worked at The Container Store for nearly eight years. Though it was just a retail job I took when I needed work after college, the friendships I made there became lasting. Sabado, Maria and Ruth have taken care of me, visited me in the hospital, checked in, cared for my dog and reminded me that those foundation principals are alive and well in and out of that store. Countless others of my old coworkers have sent and posted words of encouragement from near and far. Though three years has passed since I left, I truly feel like I grew up there. My only regret is that for some reason it took this to happen for us to reconnect, why is that?
Yesterday was the first day of school for the University of Oregon. It was my professor and mentor Sandy's last first day, as she will be retiring along side her husband Joseph at the end of the school year. I cannot imagine that department without the two of them. In my college years, they were not only my professors but acted as my surrogate parents. This January I was fortunate enough for them to visit when I was in some of my hardest days. I graduated 12 years ago, but I will always be their student. Others of my duck friends have also popped out of the woodwork to wish me well from afar. Katie has walked from Mount Hood to the coast honoring me with my name her race number, as well as sent an adorable homemade pumpkin had for me to keep my head warm. Alana from Alaska, my freshman year dorm neighbor sent hats and and interesting read all the way from the great white north. Though many years have passed just these little thoughts show me that time is nothing, and our bonds still hold strong.
Even farther back, messages of hope have reached out to me from friends from middle, high and elementary school. People I've know since kindergarten, old family friends, have written and called to check in and say they are thinking of me. One of my favorite moments was in the early spring. As I sat in my hospital bed preparing for chemo, I saw an EMT gurney going by. Then I realized I knew that EMT! I shouted, "Come back to (my room number) if it isn't life threatening!" A head whizzed around and poked into my door, it was equipped with the brilliant smile of my friend Lance. All I could get out was, "You, hug, NOW!" before the tears came. It was amazing to see this man, husband and father of two, as I drove a boy to high school most days for two years, mostly one of us running late or ill prepared. He had been asking about me at the hospital each time he came in for another patient, but due to security, they could tell him nothing. We clarified with the nurses that he may be given that information, and he offered me an ambulance ride anytime I needed one. Just seeing a grown up successful version of someone I grew up with meant the world to me. Today, six months later it still brings tears to my eyes.
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