Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Tomorrow We Walk

It's 8:17 and I am headed to bed. The reason? I am getting up at 4:00 to walk to school.
This week, as the culiminating event to our Spirit Week our school is having our annual Walk-a-Thon fundraiser where students walk laps and earn money from pledges they have taken from family. I decided that I wanted to provide a little extra motivation for my class and challenge them to see who could walk more miles. So I rounded up some teachers to walk to school with me and tomorrow we set out for our 12.3 mile trek. Now, I have done this before, for a slightly different cause, and for a lot more miles. Several years ago Emily, Brian (a colleague), and myself walked 41 miles from Brian's house to school. We taught all day, drove an hour north to his house, walked through the night and arrived at school, to teach another day. I guess that's why I'm not too worried about 12 miles. The last experience was a motivating one for my students as well as for myself. I learned a lot about my friends during the wee hours of the morning as we walked down the pitch black streets of Davis County. I also learned that I really can accomplish whatever I set my mind to. It takes time, and a lot of energy, but goals are attainable if you really want them to be. I suppose that is one of the major lessons I hope to teach my kids from this; go the extra mile to accomplish the truly difficult.
So if you're driving down Highland Drive tomorrow between 4:30 and 9:00 AM you might just see us, we'll be the ones wearing the TEAM PENN shirts, as we walk to school.

2 comments:

Mrs. Poff said...

My feet hurt just thinking about the 41 miles we walked. What a great memory! I am sure 12 will be much easier!

Anonymous said...

Aww, what a cool thing to have done! Fourty one miles sounds amazingly difficult, but I'm sure in the end it was also amazingly fulfilling =]

Go Team Penn!!