Luck be a lady...

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is scary. Matthew and I talked last fall about my getting a master's degree or trying for National Boards. We decided I would go for National Board certification, so I applied last October online. A few weeks later I received a blue box with lots of labels, envelopes, CD-Rom, and forms. I am very bad at self-instruction, i.e. reading comprehension. I always have been.

My first apprehension began when I read that I was supposed to have 3 years in the same district. Since I was only 50% for three years, those account for 1.5 years! I have one year of full-time last year. You can do the math, so I thought, "Maybe I'm not eligible yet." It turns out there is an employment verification form that I was to duplicate for each district. Again, that whole poor reading comprehension thing bit me.

OK. Long story short, I have procrastinated until the absolute last minute, as always. All of my forms were due to be postmarked today. So I get up this morning, ready to send in everything I have: License Verification including a copy of my license; Education Verification (which I paid to have sent to me via email); and one of two Employment Verification forms. As I am driving to the post office after school, I realize I forgot my labels! They were at home. So I raced back home and grabbed my blue box, and I raced back towards town. Now, keep in mind that I live in the boonies so it takes 30 minutes for me to get back to town.

I get stuck behind one very slow character, meanwhile I am on the phone with NBPTS to make sure I was not panicking only to find out that I have made myself ineligible. I guess I wasn't the only person freaking out, because the gentleman on the phone was very calm and talked me through the fact that it will be OK.

I finally get to the post office, walk in the doors, and am denied. They closed at 5:00, and I looked at my phone which said 5:01. No joke. The lady behind the door mouthed, "I'm sorry", and I tried not to burst into tears right then and there. After some customers came and went, the same lady asked me what I needed. I simply told her that I needed this envelope postmarked today, and I also realized they no longer had a copier. :/ She asked how many copies I needed, and I said, "Just one."

She let the last customer come and go, and she came out into the lobby locking the door. She offered to make my copies (which turned out to be 5 copies, not 1), and graciously did not pick up the outgoing mail until my envelope hit the pile. I can't express how grateful I am for this kind woman's act.

I wonder if I had not been behind the slow poke, would I have made it to the post office at 4:58 and gotten in the door? All I can say is that I am very grateful, and I don't plan to procrastinate on sending in my blue box with all my papers and video. I have 2 months to get it done. I just keep telling myself, "I can do this." I have an enormous support system of friends who have been through the process (including one administrator).

I wonder if this woman was sent to make me really appreciate and understand the commitment I need to make for this process.