Guaranteed to Have the Time of Your Life :: FOMO and Am I Really Missing Out?

The Mets home opener on Friday was a tough day for me. It was the first time since I’ve been in Jamaica that I felt like I was missing out on something back home. MLB Opening Week is my favorite time of the year and the home opener is like Christmas. Seeing the ballpark fill for the first time since the last season, watching the opening ceremonies, eating a Keith’s Burger at my desk while I watch the game, celebrating a victory, and leaving work with my friends for the Welcome Home Dinner in Manhattan are always the highlights…just to name a few. This year is an especially exciting year. The Mets are  celebrating their phenomenal, unexpected postseason run that led them to a National League Championship and eventually to the World Series, all of which I was a part of. The players, coaches, and staff were rewarded with NL Champion rings the day before opening day. My Instagram account was absolutely flooded with images of all of my former co-workers beautiful rings. Where was I? Sitting in a classroom in the mountains of Jamaica fighting for cell service on my break just so that I could check the final score of the game. FOMO had never been more real.

Thanks Cynthia for letting me borrow a picture of your ring since I don’t have mine yet

When I decided to leave the Mets and join the Peace Corps almost a year ago, I didn’t know exactly what I would be giving up. I didn’t know at that time that we would go to the World Series (and that Howard and I would be “Sad Mets Fans” at game 2 in Kansas City). I didn’t know that I would be giving away my opportunity to celebrate a National League Championship this season.

 So what exactly am I doing here and why did I give all of these things that I love so much?

On Thursday, while everyone was receiving their rings, I was learning how to write a lesson plan and manage a classroom and why those things are so important here in Jamaica. Children here do not get held back a grade if they begin to fall behind. They continue to get pushed forward and most teachers have classes with student abilities ranging from not knowing the alphabet all the way to students that can read chapter books and write poems. Imagine being that child that doesn’t know the alphabet. How would a single teacher with no resources handle those types of situations every single day?

During the home opener on Friday, I was watching a class of fifth graders be taught by a great teacher at a local primary school. Her class was a mix of students similar to the one I described above and her lesson was focused on ‘ee’. When it was time for the students to begin an activity about what they learned, she had five…FIVE…different activities to accommodate the different levels. Imagine having to plan five activities, or more, for every class period every day. Now imagine that you only have one hour a week of planning time built into your work schedule. It would be nearly impossible.

Let me make one thing explicitly clear; I am not here because Jamaican teachers are not good at their jobs. All of the teachers that I have met care so much about their students and strive to make them successful, but they only have so many hours in the day. When they get home from school they are cooking because picking up a quick take-out dinner is not really an option, hand washing the laundry and hanging it out on the line, hauling buckets of water into the house every time they need to flush the toilet, wash dishes, or take a bath, driving or taking unreliable public transportation over an hour into town to buy groceries because there are not real grocery stores in their community, taking care of their children, attending church events because being a Christian in Jamaica means worshiping on a regular basis, and then lesson planning in whatever little bit of spare time that they have. I live with two teachers now, so I know all of this to be true. They are truly inspiring people. So let me reiterate that we are not here because they are not doing their job well. They are. Their job is just nearly impossible due to the structure of the education system and circumstances that are out of their control.

While the home opener was being played, I was seeing all of this first hand. My job here will be to focus on the children that have fallen behind because the system has been unkind to them, to support these teachers in their efforts to educate those children, and to do my best to ensure that all of my students have the same opportunities as all of the other students. 

So am I really missing out on things back home? Maybe a little bit. However, I would be missing out on so much more if I wasn’t here. It is obvious to me that this is where I am supposed to be, even if I forget that on some days.

xoxo, Leah