The Person I’m Supposed to Be…
[faculty] voices
The mother I’m supposed to be calls deep on my courage to pledge allegiance to my kids to be that mother that can let go and let flow to embrace a life with no guarantees, allows them freedom to live with imperfection. In the Republic of themselves for which they stand They must be indivisible from compassion, connection, and perseverance. The mother I’m supposed to be needs to surrender and walk into tenderness showing my kids they are the proof of my vulnerability.
Julie Camarillo
I
Photo courtesy Jane-Grace Cootey ’23
Middle School English Teacher
WAS AWARDED THE GIFT of professional development this past summer to attend a Writer’s Workshop for teachers at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where I met incredible educators from around the world. There were 21 fellows from Kenya, Trinidad/ Tobago, the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, and from across the United States. We lived, wrote, read, laughed, cried, and nurtured our writers within. Exeter faculty members designed and taught the workshop, which encouraged and provided creative space to develop our writing, with the goal that we cannot teach writing if we cannot write.
The woman that I am continues to sail with trade winds that always bring me home. This was a time for teachers of writing to become students of writing and to refine our own writing skills. Reading literature rich in language, gave way to discussions rich in experience. The piece I am most proud of was inspired by a poem, “The Person I’m Supposed to Be.” This went through many drafts before I felt like I could share this with all of you. Thank you HPA for the professional development that already has influenced my students and will continue to do so. ■ 18 WINTER 2015/16 MA KE KULA
The wife I’m supposed to be comes to me in the language of ceremony. I do, pledge allegiance to my husband who holds daily court at the Brew Pub capturing barflies with endless fishing tales. In the Republic for which I stand, I perfect the delicate art of knowing when to be quiet, to endure, and to wait allowing his gruff and calloused exterior to settle into my wisdom. The wife I’m supposed to be is an evolutionary process like poetry on a page, taking my shape from the husband I have joined. The daughter I’m supposed to be weeds through a lifetime of lessons designing my moral landscape. Pruning feminine rules that choked my mother’s generation. I pledge allegiance to my gender to enjoy the fruits of my mother’s labor. In the Republic for which I stand I nurture inner strength and self-reliance that have been planted by her. The daughter I’m supposed to be celebrates The blooming freedom that was cross-pollinated by the generations before me. The woman that I am calls deep upon skillful navigation, tacking waters of motherhood, wifely duties, and filial obligations. I pledge allegiance to myself to be tender, loving, and respectful. In the Republic for which I am splicing knowledge from all my selves anchoring this privileged vessel* to humility and reverence. The woman that I am continues to sail with trade winds that always bring me home. —Julie Camarillo, Middle School English Teacher / June 23, 2015 *privileged vessel=the sailing vessel which in a collision was “in the right.”