Last 27 Days of Being 27: I Walked TO Work

So last night, as I was trying to decide upon something to accomplish today, I was asking myself "What are some things that I have NEVER done in my 27 years of life?" And something that I realized with a sense of embarrassing priviledge, is that I have NEVER, not one single solitary time, walked to school. In my whole life as both a student AND a teacher. The most embarrassing part? I live literally .76 miles away from my work. So, due to my quickly heightening sense of embarrassment as an able-bodied human being, I made the decision to walk to work today. Yay! And let me tell you, it was an adventure...complete with spilling an entire cup of coffee all over myself while walking through a major intersection. Yep. IF you ever have the opportunity to take an alternate form of transportation to work, do it! It has totally given me a different perspective on my day. I had way more energy early on than I usually do! And I am going to attribute that to my morning walk to work!

To accomplish a feat such as this, I needed to "suit up". This meant that I planned ahead by packing my backpack (with my heels to switch into upon my arrival at work) and bundling up in my jacket and scarf and wearing my trusty gray Chucks to speed the process along (I would have fallen FOR SURE if I would have tried to walk in heels!)


Here I am getting ready to walk out into the Great Unknown--I think I look kind of scared, but that is mostly because as I took this picture, the weird dude who never wears a shirt and lives in my apartment complex came lurking around the corner. YIKES! The things you see when you get out of your car and explore your neighborhood will astound you.

I'm walking, I'm walking, one foot in front of the other. Just to get an idea, this picture was taken right before I spilled my coffee all over the front of my pants. Apparently multi-tasking (and by "multi-tasking" I mean walking AND doing ANYTHING else at the same time....) is not my strong suit! Whatever, I was jamming out to my Notorious B.I.G. Pandora station--I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to a task as difficult as walking, could I???

Here's the crosswalk where a car tried to go before letting the PEDESTRIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY! Can you believe that??? It was me and a bunch of high school students and I was going to wait, but the kids, being kids, just went ahead and walked. So, I'm a follower--I went too....and gave the driver of the impatient car a nice little teenager-esque smirk :)

ALMOST THERE!!! By this time, I saw like 15 students who were SO confused (why is Miss Davis walking by me?) AND got honked at by a car full of ASB kids on their way back from McDonalds. No, they DID NOT offer me a ride. And YES, they DID laugh and point at me.

Ahhhhhh I have reached my destination. And look at that sunrise. Gorgeous. I am trying to pause and appreciate the little things in life--like the sunrise. And the fact that 5 planets are visible in the night sky during the months of March and April. Did you even know that? How awesome and stunning and inspiring.

The remnants of my coffee. Sad day. My poor students---a coffee-less teacher is an unhappy teacher. :/ grrrr

Ta-Da! Me in all of my "Walking Glory"--backpack, converse, frizzy hair and all.

So, what did I learn from this jaunt into the Great Unknown? A couple of things jump out at me:

1. If I'm going to walk in the morning, put my hair in a bun so that it does not get so frizzy! (I look like Miss Frizzle---you know, "The Magic Schoolbus" teacher?)

2. Planning ahead is key--bringing my backpack, with extra shoes (extra outfit--just in case?)

3. Invest in a coffee cup with a lid. Plastic--not glass...

4. Most importantly, walking to school is not as a big a deal as I made it out to be. In fact, I felt quite "metropolitan"...like I was a New Yorker wearing my business suit (Orrrrr jeans and a blazer LOL) with my sneakers and taking public transit (aka my "Chevro-legs) to work and changing into my fancy shoes upon my arrival.

Something I did not consider? WALKING HOME. At the end of the day. We'll see how THAT goes. Stay tuned.