Relentless Pursuit of Results

All TFA Institute have wrapped up now, I believe, so I won't ruin anything by writing this post - I've waited so long so I wouldn't spoil the surprise! Now that Alina, who ended Institute last, is entrenched in Vegas and done with Institute, I can FINALLY write this post about something that happened in early July!

Every week during Intenstitute - and yes, I'm still writing about it, and probably will be for some time, as, I think most Corps Members would agree, Institute is a pretty formative milestone for most TFAs - we would get a schedule at the beginning of the week letting us know what sessions were coming up during the upcoming days. DCA sessions are about diversity and working with communities, parents, and administrators; management sessions are exactly what you would think - classroom management strategies.

On the Tuesday of the third week of Institute, which was the halfway point, there were two mystery sessions on the schedule: Relentless Pursuit of Results 1 and 2 - and they were scheduled to take all afternoon.

Aww hell, I thought - 4 hours of Institute sessions. That's like, to paraphrase one of my favorite humor authors, Dave Barry, about 28 hours worth of a more enjoyable activity, such as open heart surgery without anesthesia. Disclaimer: Sessions were informative. Sessions were helpful. Sessions were...long.

Anyway, I braced myself for the worst - extra snacks, extra papers to grade, and I made sure I sat at a table with Play-Doh (During Institute, we were allowed to play with Play-Doh to keep ourselves occupied and stay awake. We were kindergardeners). Actually, come to think of it, I think I may have stolen some Play-Doh that day to make sure I had some.

Not important. So were all, all of us, in this room, everyone's thinking the same thing: what the hell is going on? We don't have sessions altogether, we don't ever have "Relentless Pursuit" sessions. There had to be something afoot.

My CMA - think of her as my Instenstitute mentor - told us that the Relentless Pursuit sessions were her favorite part of Institute. This was puzzling. WHAT was going on?

The nervous tension in the room mounted. The session began, but not with a PowerPoint, but with a discussion between the CMAs, about how other Institutes called their Relentless Pursuit sessions (bear with me; I know I'm bogging down in TFA speak, and I'm sorry) "TFA Day".

This makes sense...Relentless Pursuit of Results is one of TFA's Core Values, and that's one of the first ingredients of the Kool-Aid they make everyone drink during Induction.

But wait for it...the conversation between the CMAs took a bizarre, thrilling, and joyous turn - turns out TFA Day stands for TOTALLY FREE AFTERNOON!

YES! We had a totally free afternoon, with no 4 hour sessions, no lesson planning, no nothing. Only fun activities, like karaoke, happy hour specials at The Vine, basketball tournaments, and a Mexican fiesta in the dining hall. So what did I do?

Nothing.

(Haha - astute readers I'm sure would have predicted I headed over to booze up at the world's best bar AKA The Vine, but I have you all fooled. How I've matured since graduation...)

Bliss. I laid by the pool, working on my pretty brown skin and my novel. It was perfect; a break in the middle of Instenstitute is like an armistice that ends a world war: well-deserved and couldn't have come soon enough.

In fact, not only could it not have come soon enough, but it came at the exact perfect day: the day before had been my Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The stars were aligned. The timing was cosmic.

TFA has a lot of traditions that are passed down from Corps to Corps as time goes by, but even though I had worked for the recruitment staff for a year, I had no idea TFA Day was coming - it is the best kept secret in all of TFA (unless there is a secret that Wendy Kopp is secretly Mikhail Gorbachev, or something like that - I mean have YOU ever seen them at the same place at the same time??).

Sorry if I ruined the surprise for any potential 2011 CMs reading this - but don't tell anyone and look forward to an AWESOME and rewarding day - a chance to relax, reflect, and get your tan on.

peace and love from the grand canyon state,

pb