Yesterday was the last day of classes with my students. There were lots of hugs and reflections, and well wishes for the upcoming Regents exams. I love my job so much; I’ve never felt so whole. At this job, I feel excited to teach, and calm in a way I never felt in past jobs.



Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved my entire career. I loved my difficult classes, the years I struggled to make it to rugby games over the weekends, and back to it at school Monday. Every second of that life kicked ass. It did.

There have just been some huge changes for me since I’ve been working at Arlington HS and retired from rugby. I lived in a cycle of burn out before. Start off strong September, smash smash in fall rugby. Just make it out of June, take off of rugby and teaching for the summer.  Rinse and repeat.


At Arlington, I’ve not only learned to balance better, but I also am just better at planning and being effective with time. I have learned to say no to the right things, enough to say yes to the things I’m passionate about, the things I’m good at. I even managed to take on two clubs.

I’ve never in my entire career had a full year club, and it’s been a trip. There is a different closeness you get with students that are there by choice for a common goal. There’s something nice about hearing, “We were going to cut class but didn’t for club” 😂 Seeing students forge relationships with each other and work through their own issues together has also been amazing.

On the last day with one of my clubs, a student brought in a Lego set of flowers for us all to do as a group with the intention of me keeping them to “remember the year with them.” Of course I almost balled right there. These high schoolers wrote positive messages and stuffed them in there for when they may be needed by anyone. I absolutely love that I got to work with a set of students I probably would not have ever met otherwise.



One day when these guys turn 21, maybe they’ll stumble across this post of me gushing about how much they’ve changed me. They made me come to school on some days I was tired because I had club that day and I couldn’t cancel on them. Cheers 2025! Happy summer!