Weekly Wide-Awake: Georgia On My Mind

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Weekly Wide-Awake: Georgia On My Mind

Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Ray Charles singing “Georgia On My Mind.”

In the midst of everything that is happening in our world, this has been a week of transition. Following months of transition. On top of a lifetime of transition. You would think I would be used to it. Like coming and going. Like up and down. Like falling apart and coming together. Transition is a through line in my life. I am comfortable with it the way I can be comfortable with a new pair of shoes that look fantastic and pinch my toes. I am comfortable with it the way I am comfortable eating raw broccoli on a vegetable tray — its good for me, but I always like it better smothered in cheese. I am comfortable with it the way I am comfortable communicating in Spanish — determined, awkward, and relieved when a connection is made.

We arrived in our new Atlanta home on Sunday night, April 11th. This week has been filled with hotel living, wait and see pacing, excited exploring, communication breakdowns, and the wonderfulness of new, sprinkled with the frustration of not knowing how to get from one place to another. Beautiful trees and friendly people have made the transition as comfortable as possible.

During this week of upheaval and excitement, I have found a few reasons to bond with Atlanta, my new home.

I found music that makes me smile, Allison Krauss and Union Station’s “Oh, Atlanta”, and Indigo Girls’ “Southland In The Springtime.”

I read an essay by Harper Lee that speaks to the deep literary tradition of the South.

Stacey Abrams’ TED Talk excites me to get involved the politics of my new home.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s podcast celebrating Atlanta poets during National Poetry Month brought a little understanding to this week, too.

A good first week, all in all.