So. The sudden security measures, the removal of all the photo links and the decrease in posting, it all has to do with something that I'd been expecting yet hoped to avoid...my students discovering my blog. I suppose it was inevitable; especially since it was linked to my real name (on other blogs) and to another teacher's blog - who really should have known better.
It doesn't bother me that my students found the blog, it doesn't even bother me that they saw the pictures that I had uploaded, my only concern is that at least one student has taken offense to some of the things that I have written, and I had never meant to offend.
This blog was only ever meant to keep my family in touch with what's going on here, in Kuwait, since the time difference makes it extremely difficult to keep in contact via MSN and the phone.
If I have offended you, I'm sorry. It's true, it was hard to come back here after Christmas, but it wasn't the fact that I was coming back to Kuwait that made it so difficult; it was that I was saying goodbye to the people that I love so much for the nth time, and wondering why on earth I do it to myself yet again.
I know that the challenges I am having here are not because I am teaching Kuwaities; it's because I'm teaching students. I would be having the same challenges in Canada, or anywhere else in the world, as it all comes with learning the job. To some it comes naturally, to others, like myself, it takes time and unfortunately, that requires patience and wisdom both on my part and on the part of my students.
But because I do need a private life outside of school, I will not be updating this blog any longer. I'm having a blast in Kuwait; learning and experiencing so much - we'll be heading to Dubai at the end of February and to Egypt at the end of March, and traveling around Europe in June. Looking back 10 years, I'd never imagine that this is where I'd be right now, and I'm very excited for it all. It goes to show what a shy, self-conscious, small-town girl from nowheresville Ontario can do...our circumstances don't control us, we control our circumstances.
Yes, I am planning on coming back next year - enshallah - and not because of the raise (although that does help, and you will understand someday, trust me); but because for the moment, this is where God wants me to be. And if, by chance, I do not come back, it will not be because of negative feelings towards Kuwait or because of anything the students have done; but because I'm being lead on a new adventure elsewhere.
Saturday, 2 February 2008
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