At school, I am Ms. Prpich.
I often wonder who my students think I am. I hear them describe me as chill, calm, patient, sometimes funny, yet often serious. They give me kudos for teaching pubescent adolescents about their changing bodies and keeping a straight face through their onslaught of highly personal questions. You must be a good poker player, they say, and I am, though gambling isn’t entertaining to me, I’d rather buy something tangible than take the risk of ending with nothing.
I often wonder if my students realize how I came to be here. How Ms. Prpich was formed. Do they know….I grew up as a country tomboy, gardening, raising animals, splitting firewood on a farm. I only had 56 kids in my entire grade level and we’d all known each other since kinder. I was really good at sports and being an athlete was my entire self identity. Until my senior year, when a torn ACL shattered my vision of myself. Sometimes bad things are blessings in disguise, because in losing my chance at college sports scholarships, I rebuilt who I was and learned to put value in my other qualities, like my intelligence and compassion for others, which I think put me on the track to becoming a teacher. I put my love of sports into my college studies, majoring in sports medicine and spending many hours working in the college training room and as a medic on sidelines and in dugouts. Jobs are slim in athletic training, so teaching entered my life as my back-up career. Then I discovered middle schoolers and my satisfaction in sharing my love of science and health and Spanish with young people. I’ve been teaching middle school ever since.
I often wonder what my students imagine me to be outside of my classroom, as a person, in life. Do they know…in life, I’m not Ms. Prpich, I’m just Ellie. Not Eleanor or Elise or any longer name, just Ellie. Ellie is social and active and loves sleeping in. My athleticism has turned into individual sports done with friends: surfing, bouldering, running, racquetball. I take long walks around Mt Tabor with my old yellow lab. I go on motorcycle rides and to indie rock concerts and cheap second run movies with my spouse. I curl up in the easy chair with a cup of chai and a good book. I sing loudly at Timber’s and Blazer’s games. In the summer, I camp and hike and take long vacations to other countries, most frequently Mexico. I spend as much summer as I can speaking Spanish, dancing to salsa music, and eating tamales because, though I am white on the outside, en mi corazon, soy mexicana.
Do my students guess as to all that I am when I am not just Ms. Prpich? I often wonder…
People of RMS 