Everyone Has a Story

Having written my memoir really gets me thinking about everyone else’s story. No one is ordinary. And even if they are—it’s in that day-to-day that stories are built, that the remarkable occurs.

In the hall at work, I stopped to watch a teacher assemble a bulletin board. Another teacher stopped and another one—a small professional development moment if you will. We chatted about this and that and the conversation went to teaching abroad in Bhutan—which my colleague did.

She talked about how different classes, expectations, and discipline were there. She described what it was like getting from the village where she taught to the capital city—a train, a bus, a hike. She talked about supporting students so they would not be harmed. Physical punishment was common in their education system. She talked about the warm temperatures and how bananas grew in the village as commonly as crab apples grow here. She told the story of being invited to have tea with the King—The King (I’m still taking that in) while she lived there and how he gifted her and her husband a turkey (he raised them for Westerners who lived in Bhutan to make them feel more at home). She talked about the politics of the place and their gross national product—happiness.

I was fully engaged in her stories in the hall outside the staffroom. They were so interesting and different and made me curious about a culture so far from my own. She talked with familiarity and intellect, passion, and care for the things she experienced. I was her audience for a few minutes, and I loved it.

When she was living this life in Bhutan my colleague didn’t feel she was doing anything extraordinary. She was just living her life as a teacher abroad. But, as she told her story about that experience, those moments turned into her personal history. I saw her as a math teacher, a mom, a wife, a colleague down the hall. Now I also see her as an adventurer, risk-taker, storyteller. Everyone has a story. I should never forget that. It was a good reminder for me.

As always, thanks for reading lovelies.