Now What?

So what now? The Eastern Michigan Writing Project summer institute comes to an end on Friday. By lunch time today, our ePortfolios will be completed. Tomorrow we celebrate our accomplishments during the institute with administrators from our districts over lunch. On Friday we pack up our space at the Student Center on the campus of Eastern Michigan University, where we have lived as a learning and writing community for the last 5 weeks. Then we will head to a local pub to share our writing and how we have evolved as Teacher-Writers, Teacher-Consultants, Teacher-Researchers, and friends. I predict that there will be much hugging, blubbering, and loud laughing. Actually, I started the waterworks last week. It isn't that I mourn the end of the institute because there is no way I could maintain the level of intense learning for too much longer.  My tearing up is more about catharsis. I was carrying around more baggage about myself as a learner and a professional than I ever realized. I will also miss seeing my friends' faces and hearing their laughter and stories everyday. The summer institute opened me up to new possibilities that fed my brain and my teacher soul and will be able to help sustain me professionally and personally for many years to come. I'm not ready to quit teaching yet. I wouldn't have said that a month ago.