This one's for my coworkers

One of my absolute most anticipated moments after my engagement was getting to return to work to share my news with all my favorite coworkers. Telling friends and family was fun, don’t get me wrong, but telling the people that I spend more time with than my fiancé, who are really a second family to me, was destined to be a big moment.

Part of the reason for my excitement is that Kyle is practically an honorary faculty member. He is so supportive of my involvement in the school and in the students’ lives that he attends many of the school events with me, from plays and dance concerts, to staying up all night at Relay for Life with the National Honor Society team. He even got an award as “Honorary Advisor” last Spring from our NHS officers. I actually sometimes feel like the people at work are more excited to see him than me, and when he helped me set up my classroom this year and one of our security guards noted “She really does make you go everywhere”, I knew that my instincts may be correct. So, I was sure that my coworkers were waiting in as much anticipation as I was for the big moment to actually occur.

Until my principal forgot to share the news.

So, I must backtrack and thank my principal Ken for his foresight and kindness in sending me off to Chicago with a single hotel room, which allowed room for Kyle to come along with me.  Without this trip, who knows when the engagement would have finally happened. At our first faculty meeting in July, I thought Ken was planning to share the news (and perhaps his traditional $20 bill).  It was actually funny, because he noted that he learned about “change of status” on Facebook, so I assumed he was going to announce the news of my engagement, but he was not even talking about me, rather a long-time single coworker who had changed his status to “in a relationship”. Realizing that he forgot later on, he did make the announcement during breakout sessions, and I got a barrage of congratulatory remarks.

The real excitement, though, is having the support of my coworkers along this journey. I feel like I have seen so many of them go through major life changes, like children and marriage, and I trust them and look to them as role models for my own major life change.  Beyond our working relationships, I value their wisdom, and I value their friendship. Happy hours help us relax after being on our best behavior around the students. Lunchtime debates get us excited about educational and social issues. Laughter follows us everywhere we go. It only seems appropriate that coworkers shared my engagement, and will continue to share in my planning experiences as well as all that will follow in our marriage. I am grateful for having such an amazing job that I just may love as much as I love Kyle. Even if Ken thinks that my engagement means that he will see less and less of me around school.

Kyle chaperoning his 5th prom with me

Some of my lovely coworkers, supportive and beautiful!