How We Met... the short version

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HOW WE MET

            Finding a teaching job in 2010 was not an easy task.  Trying to distinguish yourself from two hundred applicants was difficult when you all had the same qualifications.  My plan to set myself apart was to teach overseas.  South Korea wasn’t my first choice.  I was planning on going to China but those plans fell through.  How different my life would’ve been had those plans not changed.

            August 2010, my flight touched down at Incheon airport.  Hours later I was being shown the school I would be teaching at for the next year, LCI Academy.  I was handed a pamphlet that introduced the school’s mission statement and staff biographies.  At the bottom were pictures of all ten English teachers.  There was a picture of myself and the other eight teachers I met earlier that day.  Interestingly enough, one of the faces I didn’t recognize.  Mined you, this was a face you wouldn’t forget.  To say the least I very much wanted to meet this Kate Terry.

            To officially welcome all the new teachers our school had a dinner.  The entire staff was there except Kate; her flight arrived after mine.  Dinner began and everyone joined in conversation.  About thirty minutes had passed when I saw her walk into the restaurant.  She was more than her picture revealed.

            Over the next year we became inseparable.  Our classrooms were next door to each other and I was greeted with her infectious smile every morning.  We shared in the excitement of exploring our new surrounds.  Walks, subways, buses and bike rides were vehicles for our blossoming friendship.  She became my best friend.  It was easy to follow in love with her.