acorns

August 15, 2024 - The daily WORDLE is ACORN, reminding me that an acorn had been on my (long) list of tattoo ideas.
August 16, 2024 - Conveniently, I already have a tattoo appointment. I sketch it out, and leave the appointment with an acorn between my shoulder blades.
August 29, 2024 - I receive an email asking me to interview (THE NEXT DAY) for the position of Learning Specialist at St. Thomas School.
August 31, 2024 - My mother asks if I’ve looked at the logo of the school… I have not.

It’s an acorn.

September 16, 2024 - I receive an email with a job offer.
October 8, 2024 - I say goodbye to Michigan, my home for 13 years.
October 10, 2024 - I say goodbye to my family, my home for 31 years.
October 11, 2024 - My first, full day living in Seattle.
October 14, 2024 - My first day at St. Thomas School.

October 14, 2025 - Marking one year since joining a school with, in a ridiculous coincidence, a logo that matched a tattoo I got 2 weeks before I interviewed. The school that offered me the job that made this Seattle dream possible. What a gift to find a place with so many brilliant colleagues and to call many of them my friends. What a gift to land across the country and feel at home. To be welcomed by old friends and invest in making new ones. To build a life here.

One of my dearest friends asked me recently–how does it feel? It feels true. It feels right. It feels complicated and, sometimes, difficult. But never wrong. Miraculously for this anxious mind, there has not been, in 365 days, one single moment of regret. That, too, is such a gift.