On the Ferry

I used to teach in a small island school with a total K-8 enrollment of 30 students. I taught three grades and had 7-10 students. For three years I took a ferry back and forth every day to work. Sunny days, stormy days, snowy days, foggy days - I was there for all of them, sometimes the only passenger on the boat. During the final year my son attended school there as well and we rode the boat together. From the beginning I took photos of my ride almost every day, documenting hundreds of trips. I slowly built up a catalog of some fantastic images.

That was back when I was using a school issued computer and didn’t back up my files. I lost them all except for a small handful taken right near the end of my time there. Very, very, disappointing. 

So today it was like seeing a ghost to come across this image, completely by accident. Somehow it had been saved in the nether regions of the cloud, included in a folder of lesson plans from a computer long since defunct. Taken in 2008, it’s not a great photo, but I still think you can tell I really enjoyed riding that ferry. Enough to override any compunctions about posting a photo not taken today. It was a real treat to come across it.

To be sure I’ve kept my streak intact though, I’ve included an extra that is from today. Nothing too interesting. It’s meant to represent the fact that almost my entire day was spent planning lessons and organizing materials for the next seven weeks. I’m already counting down to my next week off!