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December 2. The day my mother was born in a farmhouse in Watauga County, 1924. An early snow prevented the doctor’s arrival, the story goes. But little Willie Lee (Who names  a baby girl that?! She never understood!) came into the world and eventually married William Max (earlier known as Billy Max… sounds good with Willie Lee!) Dixon. Love, faith, family, and hard work… three children, lots of wonderful memories, hard times that made them stronger. And then she was taken from us in 1985, after a long goodbye. More good times and a few bad. Spouses and grandchildren joined the family. We grew and gathered and celebrated and shared.

December 2. What once seemed like the hardest, saddest day of my life, 1984. My six-month old and I went to church and stood waiting at the Communion rail in front of my parents’ friends, then went to the hospital to join Daddy at Mother’s bedside. Then we went home (Rick was at work.) and decorated our Christmas tree– and the little miracle I needed happened: my chubby little baby crawled for the first time, towards that tree. Life does indeed go on. And so it did, until….

December 2. The day my daddy joined my mother in Heaven, 2012. Unspeakable sorrow. So hard to lose the man who had been my rock for so long. So hard to see my children say goodbye to a man they adored. But such a relief to know he no longer had to struggle for breath. I will always, always miss him.

December 2. And here I am, 2016. Living on an island. Ocracoke. The only high school math teacher in a pre-k through 12 school with fewer than 200 students. Six hours round-trip to the nearest “real” grocery store. A tropical storm and a hurricane (I evacuated) in my first two months. A ferry ride away from the mainland. Feeling grateful for the life I have. A little late with my thankfulness message. But grateful for good health, including the two feet that take me on long walks. For the opportunity to teach in this place and for the welcome the staff and community have given me. For the feeling, finally, of being appreciated for my hard work. For the support of my family and friends, who probably secretly think I have lost my mind. For this chance to experience a whole new world.

December 2.

Teachers often count time in quarters, as in one quarter of the school year. For us, the New Year starts in August. For most of my life, doctor and dentist and ophthalmologist appointments, haircuts, new clothes (and my birthday!) signaled the beginning of a new year. This year, August signaled the beginning of a whole new life for me.

The first quarter of the school year ended, more or less (waiting to see how the hurricane days play out with NCDPI!) on October 31. But today marks the end of my first three months living in Ocracoke. A quarter of a calendar year. I have had a birthday. Weathered a tropical storm, Hermine, with a shaking house and my first experience moving my car to “higher ground.” Evacuated for a hurricane, Matthew, coming back to flooded roads, water up to my fourth step, power outages, piles of debris.

I have come to love my school and the folks who work and learn there. To enjoy meeting and greeting students and their parents as I walk through the village. I embrace the limitations and the possibilities.

And the beauty, Oh, the beauty…!

This has been a busy, stressful day. It is election day across the country and on a local level, that included a mock election for our students in the commons area outside my room. It was also picture day, which as any teacher can tell you is chaotic. Basketball season is starting and for Ocracoke School that is huge; our athletes (remember our numbers are small, so fielding varsity and junior varsity (boys) teams involves a large proportion of our students. They will leave at 9:30 Thursday morning for an away game and will not return until after midnight. With the Veterans day holiday on Friday, there is a bit less impact than for most games. We will have a Veterans Day ceremony on Thursday morning and this is the week of the island’s first Latino Festival, which includes some sessions during school this week. Hectic? You bet! So here I offer an antidote to the stress in my own situation and that everyone in the United States is facing tonight. (Thanks to my friend Carrie Galloway for sharing this with me.)

When despair for the world grows in me 
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Ocracoke School is a school like no other! Fewer than 200 students in Pre-K through 12. One teacher for each of the elementary grades, and one teacher for each core subject in middle and high school. One teacher for PE, computer/business, and art for all grades. Many of the older students take upper-level classes online.

There are no buses. Many children ride bikes or walk to school; others are dropped off by parents in cars or golf carts. Teachers walk, take golf carts or drive. The school is just over a half mile from my house.

There is no cafeteria; children bring their lunches and eat together in a common area and then go outside (or to the gym in bad weather) to play. Yes, to play! Three teachers, on a rotating schedule, and the principal (yes, the principal!) do lunch duty; others are free to go home for lunch also.

This is my little wooden classroom. It is just a tad bigger than a 15′ X 15″ square. The floor, walls and ceiling are all wood! I have six two (three if needed) people desks and barely enough room to walk between them. But I have a SmartBoard and a laptop cart. I AM the high school math department! (Meetings are very short! and usually pretty congenial!) I can’t send children out into the hall ( I always hate it when teachers do that anyway!) because there is no hall!

My room is just off the commons area, where students gather before school, eat breakfast and sometimes lunch. It, too, is wooden. As are the bathrooms! Every time I go into the bathroom, I feel like I am summer camp (“How I love the things we do at Camp Tekoa!” and “Camp Seven Springs is so much fun…”). Could be interesting in the winter.

Everyone knows everyone. This is a real community. After just one round of lunch duty, I know most of the lower grades kids, if not by name at least by face. As I walk through the village, stop in at the Variety Store or check my mail at the post office (feel free to send something to box 414), I see people who know me and seem happy to see me. Kids ride past me on their bikes and say hello. Sort of a Mayberry kind of feeling.

But back to the school. Since we are so isolated, students are out of class a lot. A trip to the dentist is at least a half day and the orthodontist or a doctor other than the local clinic, a full day. And sports are a big deal! We are the only school on the island so every away game requires both a ferry ride and a drive, many of those several hours away. The activity bus will often leave between 9 and 11 AM and not get back to the island until 10:00 PM or even later. There is no football team and no softball team. Last year was the first year we had a soccer team and this year was our first home soccer game. Still waiting for the first win!

The student population is an interesting mix. Many- most- are lifelong Ocracokers, whose parents also went to Ocracoke School. A few are relatively new to the island– dingbatters like me! Some of them are from wealthy families, with parents who are opening businesses on the island. The interactions and conversations between these children are interesting. Hurricane Matthew made this clear; I heard one young man all giddy with the prospect of time off to go on vacation while his classmate was concerned because her fisherman father stood to lose thousands of dollars in income! And then there is the relatively large Hispanic population, which seems to be well integrated into the culture.

There is so much more to Ocracoke School than I have shared here, but for now suffice it to say that I am proud to be a Dolphin!

Two months ago today I boarded a ferry and arrived on Ocracoke Island at about 4:00 PM to start a new chapter: math teacher at Ocracoke School. THE high school math teacher. Next post will be all about the school, but let’s start with how I got here and what has happened in these two months.

Back in the spring, I found out that my services were no longer needed in Stokes County because of budget cuts (last hired, …) and so I started looking at my options. Retiring was a possibility, though not the best financial choice just yet. There were lots of math openings in Forsyth and nearby counties, but I had already made the choice two years earlier to leave the larger schools. So on the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, I was checking out various school districts online. On a whim, I searched Ocracoke School. In the past, as we drove past the quaint building in the even more quaint village, I had told my family I was going to teach there. Lo and behold! Ocracoke needed a math teacher. I sent the principal an email and my resume that very night. And he called me the next morning, from his golfing vacation in the mountains!

We talked that morning and on Thursday we had an “official” Skype interview with the principal, assistant principal and former math teacher (who is still with the system as a tech grant facilitator). By 3:15 that afternoon, I had a job offer! Then the reality check began. What was I thinking? You can only get here by boat! I wasn’t going to bring a bed over on a boat! And then I remembered that my sister-in-law’s mother has a rental house here…. fast forward a few emails, texts and phone calls, and ta-da! I have a house!

Then fast forward to where I started this post: August 21, 2016. I actually stayed in a little apartment above a craft shop the first week, until the house was available. And then on August 28, I moved into my little wooden house which is perfect for me. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, ample living room and kitchen. Covered parking. Washer/dryer (gotta have that). Learning to live without a dishwasher and with a gas range. And occasional roaches. Lots of sand. But the sand comes mostly from almost daily walks on the beach. Nice trade-off.

And what an exciting two months it has been. I came here knowing nobody. I have made friends. Yes, friends. Not just people I have met but people who take care of me. The friend who gave me an iron because I said the one in the house came over on the Mayflower. The old friend from high school who lives on the next island who brought me a bunch of groceries. The only other new teacher in the school who graduated from UNC the same year as my daughter. The newspaper owner who interviewed me and continues to check on me. The people I meet on the ferry or at soccer games or The Variety Store. The many people (“many” is also a relative term here on the island… there aren’t actually many of us anyway!) who text or come by or email, especially during the storms, to check on me.

And ah, yes! The storms! Two weeks after I got here, tropical storm Hermine blasted through. I rode it out… a lot of wind, more water, a few power outages. Parked my car a couple of miles from home on higher ground, picked up Thai food on my blustery walk home and hunkered down for the evening. By mid-morning, the sun was out and as I walked around the house talking on the phone, I watched the water continue to rise another 18 inches or so. Good thing I moved the car! I donned my new rain boots and checked out the village. Storm one, check!

And then along came Matthew! After a long week of weather-watching– coming here as a Category 3, not coming at all, coming as a tropical storm, and so on– I headed west on Thursday morning (October 6). We had lots of rain in Lewisville on Saturday, but Ocracoke took a big hit during the night. No rain but huge tides and storm surge from the sound as well. Water rose 3-5 feet in various parts of the island. I had debris piled up on the fourth step– about waist high. School was closed for six days. And then we had another unexpected closing just yesterday, nearly two weeks after Matthew actually came through. A two hour power outage because of salt build-up on the lines, followed by a “major mechanical failure” that took the power out again before 6 AM. The island’s generator kicked in pretty soon, but we remained closed so as not to overtax the generator. Islanders know how to cope and so a crane and a new transformer were put on an extra ferry, and by 5:15 PM full power was restored.

There is so much more to tell. And tell it, I will. But suffice it to say for now that, while I am not yet (and will never be) an Ocracoker, I am no longer a dingbatter in the most tourist-y sense of the word. Some define dingbatter as one who is truly a “dingbat” (as in totally clueless) and some define it as one who moves to the island from anywhere west of Morehead City. I am the latter, to be sure. But I think I am learning the ways of the island.

Stay tuned.