Apparently, I'm happy

My voice has always been a point of pride.  It's versatile.  It's loud.  In the UK, it's distinctive.  Also, it conveys my mood pretty effectively.  Even if I'm not aware of my mood, my voice conveys it.  Since I've moved to London, people have told me a few times that I sound different.  I sound happier. When I stop to think about it, yeah, I guess I am.

Most of that must be my school.  If I'm happy at work, everything else is a little easier.  And frankly, I've been loving my school.  The students are great girls.  They respond well to me, and they work incredibly hard.  They embrace every task I set, so my time is largely spent finding interesting tasks rather than chasing up students who haven't done their work.  That makes class so much more enjoyable.  I have been in a class laughing along with everyone more times than I'd expected in the first month.  I can hear myself getting excited about physics more often than I had been last year.  I can be a talker and story teller often times, so the energy of my voice is quite important to me.  When a supervisor observed a class, she said that the students were quite focused on what I was saying.  When a colleague observed informally, she said I looked like I was having so much fun that she might have to change subjects.  

My school has been kind enough to keep my responsibilities light to begin with.  I am an associate tutor instead of a form tutor (similar to a homeroom teacher back in the USA, but with more responsibilities of looking after the students overall), and I am not required to coach anything.  So, I've been able to ease myself into the extra things I loved back at Northern.  I was approached by the drama directors, and I agreed to help out a little bit with the tech.  I haven't done much, but I have helped them brainstorm about using LCD projectors and sound cue software.  I have worked a little with the tech kids and given them what I hope is useful advice and perspective.  It's nothing huge, but it's a start.  I was also approached by students hoping to start an engineering club.  That's right, theater and an engineering club, just like old times.  I shared with these students every engineering challenge I used to do back at NHS, and they had that look of "wow, we definitely asked the right person to sponsor."  Also, I've been asked several times to participate in Friday charity events put on during lunch.  One was a karaoke.  Now, I can't sing, and I've never done karaoke.  My voice is good for many things, but carrying a tune has never been one of them.  But, it was for charity, and I figured the new guy should take one for the team and go embarrass himself.  So, I sang "New York, New York."  I did my best Frankie and made up for my lack of pitch with an abundance of volume.  The kids loved it.  

I am definitely enjoying NHEHS, and after this past week, I'm realizing my colleagues and bosses are happy I'm there, too.  The head of my department and the head of the school both told me that they are very happy with the job I'm doing and are hearing wonderful things from the students.  I was walking around with quite a smile after that. 

So, with a solid base of work, I've been comfortable getting out of the house relatively often. I've done some shows and events, but my most consistent activity has been volleyball.  I found a cool group of people that likes to play at a relatively high level, teaches me skills I obviously need, and goes to the pub after matches.  I was asked the first day if I'd keep score during a game, and they decided that they loved my announcer voice.  They said it makes the games feel more dramatic.  And our pub has one good beer and 5 quid pizzas.  That's a winning formula.

A bunch of other things are contributing to a happy Josh.  I'm going to the gym consistently for the first time in maybe ever.  My roommate is awesome and friendly and respectful.  She showed me where to find good pierogi, which I haven't had outside of Pittsburgh.  I'm riding my bike everywhere and gaining thighs of steel.  I'm learning to be patient enough to air dry clothes when it's not raining.  And my lovely parents sent me smiley cookies and parmesan cheese (which is far more difficult to find in this country than I would have imagined).

Life is good.  And you can hear it in my voice.