Journalist, Wheeler

Today, for me, began ridiculously early. I was up in the gloomy semi-darkness of 6 a.m., something I hadn't been able to do since the Lyme chronicles commenced in July. But because I felt relatively chipper, I was smiling as I got ready to head to Wheeler Middle School for a day leading the sixth graders in Kristi Williams's biology classes to the Assekonk Swamp refuge where we'd be walking the trail to the observation deck and recording our findings along the way. The smile came from two places. The first was that I realized, yes, I am healed enough to at last have the energy to work with the kids. The second smile resulted from the fact that I could return to what I think I most love in this world: teaching students about natural history. I made it school on time, and after a brief introduction about the importance of journals that I made to each of Kristi's four classes, we were off, looking and listening, rolling logs and dipping nets into the water. Sixth grader Sophia Anderson proved an adept learner, practicing what Kristi and I preached as Sophia sat on a lichen-covered boulder and committed her many observations to paper.