One Memorable Day

As I contemplated what to call this blog - a record of my experiences as a teaching artist with Arts Integration Menomonie (A.I.M) - I remembered a passage I read the night before we began our kick-off 3 day A.I.M Academy.

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

Charles Dickens 

Great Expectations

I love that line. As an artist and an aesthete the beauty of seeing a journey as a chain, whether it be iron or gold, thorns or flowers, was compelling.

Preparing for a journey to begin the next day, I could't help but wonder about the chain we would be forging, artists and educators together, as well as how the very next day would be "the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

We have, of course, Great Expectations: visions and dreams of how we will integrate the arts into the very core of our community - our schools.

My expectations are many: excitement, frustration, hard work, laughter, collaboration and learning.

Link by link we shall see how it grows.

An Aside: The actress in me also just loves this story - I hope someday to wander my house like this... you know... for drama...