staging: philadelphia

6/5/2001:
started staging yesterday in philly. the 76’ers just got to the finals the night before. tough saying goodbye to everyone that night. especially rama and the kids... not sure just why? moms had everyone fill out a page in an album for me. photos and an entry about memories. i got very emotional flipping through it. couldn’t hold back the tears and i just didn’t speak so i wouldn’t ball. found myself doing a lot of that this last weekend... no speaking. worried my voice would crack and i’d breakdown, i guess.

moms did a splendid job of packing fore me... God bless her. 3 LARGE duffle bags and a backpack. the bags weighed in here @ JFK at ~100 lb each. 20 over the 80 lb PC stipulated limit, but all was well. so... landed in philly yesterday. strange walking around a few blocks of a city without a larger context. didn’t really feel like i was there.

the group is great. 30 other prospective teachers. about 1:1 ratio of male-female trainees. all around 30 or younger, and 2 couples... they’re cute. we did the ice-breakers and get-to-know-yous yesterday, but they weren’t bad at all. everyone seems really sincere so that helps. also exciting/relieving to be with folks who are going through much the same thing... emotions especially. can already see the camaraderie building. looking forward to having many of them as a support network.

one of the sessions yesterday bothered me—no, just got me thinking... called Policies in Practice. all about familiarizing us with a few rules. political expression, intelligence, drugs and motor safety. felt like there was a little “deprogramming” going on, you know? getting us to change our views/ways in regard to issues like privacy, discretion, politics, etc. many of the concepts weren’t foreign to me (i.e. not saying anything about the government). but still it kinda rubbed me the wrong way... felt myself getting a little cynical during the discussion. anyhow... not to worry. it’s all for our well-being and i can deal.

a quote the PC staging staff shared with us:
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” –Helen Keller