The Time Line...

I work in an elementary school with both regular-ed and special-ed students. In social studies, the other day, our assignment was to learn how to create a "time line." We browsed through our social studies books at the time lines of historical events...but the teacher that I collaborate with created a time line of his life (on the white board) to show the students how to order the events in our own lives. The problem...you should ask? Well, the teacher placed 1981 as the year he entered kindergarten. I marched right up to the board, drew a bell next to this same year, and proceeded to tell the class that this was the year that I got married. A little time warp here...a generation gap maybe? While I drew my wedding bell on the board I hummed the song "Here Comes the Bride," and saw the shock in the students eyes as they realized I was ALOT older then the teacher that I worked for.

I left school that day with an added burden to my mid-life crisis mood and knew it would be a long time until I put my dates on another person's time line. I woke up the next morning, though, with a new idea on this whole matter. I thought about the time line, and just how old I was in comparison to this other teacher. I realized then, that if I turned my time line into "lines that time created," (which I seem to have acquired a lot around my eyes) then my age didn't work against me but for me. My own little time line, on my face, may have been caused by some of my failures, but in whole, I think my lines of time are probably a true story of my richest successes.