Coming Full Circle
If you’re of a certain era, seeing the title of this blog entry might have sparked memories of The Lion King’s opening number. I’ve been feeling that sentiment so often lately in personal and professional contexts that “Circle of Life” could be my theme song for the last quarter of 2022.
This September, I recommitted myself to one of my alma maters, Teachers College, Columbia University, as an adjunct professor in the Summer Principals Academy (SPA) program. It made me flashback to my senior year of high school when I confidently told my counselor I was applying to Teachers College (TC) after graduation. When she told me TC was a graduate school and I couldn’t apply right out of high school, I was instantly concerned about her level of intellect. I was about to be a graduate, right? Didn’t that make me eligible for grad school?
Every time I tell this story, I chuckle at my ignorance and send another wave of gratitude into the atmosphere for my counselor’s patience and ability to avoid laughing in my face despite justifiable cause. The fact that I chose TC for my first graduate degree would’ve come as no surprise to her, but neither one of us probably envisioned I’d be returning 17 years later as an adjunct professor helping students interested in pursuing educational leadership.
Conversation Forward has also given me another professional full circle moment through our equity work with The Brooklyn Latin School (TBLS). I spent seven formative and transformational years as an IB English teacher at TBLS, and when I left in 2014, I never imagined a world where I’d reenter the doors as an educational consultant to execute an equity series for staff and students. Time hasn’t stood still and there have been advancements, but it’s also true that the address remains the same, the building remains the same, and the essential features of the school remain the same. No surprises there. After all, TBLS is an institution that prides itself on providing a classical, liberal arts education to students.
There are other full circle moments that have manifested themselves in my world lately, but they all impress the words of Nelson Mandela more fully in my consciousness:
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
May we all embrace full circle moments that remind us of how far we’ve come, how much we’ve grown, and how true it is that life is a journey.