A Game of Risk

Send 10 armies to the Middle East from Egypt.

It's not always easy to close chapters in life, even harder if they are almost forced closed. There is no closure in someone sending you pictures asking if you want to keep this. There is no closure in packing your belongings by video thousands of miles away. There is no closure in getting something sentimental back. There is no closure.

It's hard to come to grips with the how's and the why's and the "this is how it is." Many find comfort in, "it is what it is." But is it really?

Just around a year after deciding to move to China, I had to make the hard decision to move back and leave my new home. I've recently taken up playing an online game of "Risk." You know, that game about world domination and armies fighting in territories. I'm not the best at it, but it reinforces sometimes things are unpredictable, and it's the unpredictable we must attempt to prepare for and live with.

When you work in an international school like I was, your coworkers become your family. Ever seen an episode of "MASH"? It's almost exactly the same, except we live in different apartments. I love my coworkers, but we need our space! Even more than just a cot and a few square feet! (I experienced this type of living for 3 weeks at the last National Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A. P. Hill in 2010, and let me tell you... it took some getting used to.)

20 armies attack the Middle East from India.

World events have strewn us over the globe. The two week turned into a month, a month turns into another month and suddenly it's the end of May and decisions have to be made about the next year. The unknowns, and there are many, sprinkle thoughts and decisions in more ways than one. The inability to be back in Chengdu with students was my biggest piece in the puzzle.

Teaching much can sometimes be a challenge in person! Have you ever tried to teach beginner saxophone? For the first few months, it sounds like a heard of dying (possibly mating) ducks/ geese/ turkeys any kind of fowl you can think of! It's challenging enough in person! Imagine teaching it online! When we went to an online format for out classes, I was forced to reevaluate everything we were doing. I taught theory, history, and as many things of the sort as I could! It wasn't until May I said that it's time to do it. We have to make music. It is imperative!

With all of this on my mind, I knew it was important for these students to have someone in person that could guide and lead them in ways an online instructor could not. It hurt to leave my "family," my MASH unit. Looking back now, many of us that left and did not get back to China before border closures are not returning to our unit. It's all a game of "RISK."

Send 15 armies to the Middle East from somewhere else.

You loose ground and you gain the ground back. Things change and your "unit" gets broken and transferred. Doors open and doors close, but venturing into the unknown is what keeps us moving.

You have regained the Middle East.