Country Roads

Home! Every semester it gets harder to go away. Is it possible to be homesick while being home - just being here wondering how I can be more home, longing for it, wanting to just stand outside and soak up the sunshine feeling the warm humid breeze wash over me. The drive through downtown, where all the oak trees are fully leafed out and the line the roads on both sides, branches intertwined overhead making a canopy. The light filters through a dappled yellow green. Live oaks are the most elegant trees. They're giant, yet peaceful looking with their meandering branches and rough bark. Just seeing them makes me want to grab a book and climb into one, snuggled down into the crook of a branch to read. I went to see an old teacher (not that she's old, but rather, I'm a former student of hers) today and yesterday. She's at a Jr. High now - a little one with just over 300 students back on a country road. There's no real security concerns, no fancy high-tech sign in, no way to lock down the entire school hallway by hallway. My teacher's classroom didn't even have an overhead in it. It still had chalkboards. I haven't seen chalk boards in a while. I could work in a place like that. She has a tiny budget, but still, I could work in a place like that. I could come home. Or at least be in a small-ish district close to the country, in a town that still has a country mentality, where a good sized portion of the students work around livestock and county fair is possibly more important than football.