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MELISSA LEIGH GIBSON
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  • The Present Tense Blog
  • Home
  • CV
  • Teaching
  • Writing
  • Presentations
    • SS Curriculum Review
    • Big Questions, Big Issues
    • Getting Proximate
  • The Present Tense Blog

the present tense

​​​Thoughts on politics, education, culture, parenthood, community, identity.
​Part personal essay, part academic paper, part travelogue. ​
​Always a work in progress. 
​
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the rains

5/25/2013

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Picture
Photo by Melissa Gibson | All rights reserved
As soon as we left the house for Friday night paletas, I knew. I could smell it in the air. That tell-tale mix of earth, minerals and water.

The rains were coming.

​I was teased into thinking they’d arrived a week earlier when, on my walk home from school, a quick drizzle sputtered down. When the first droplets hit my arms–my arms, hot and sticky after a day spent herding teenagers in classrooms that grew hotter and thicker as the day wore on–it was as if I were electrified. Every cell in my body began zinging and bouncing and reaching for those rain drops. Those precious few drizzle drops that sent me home in a skip, only to be dashed by Nico’s solemn head shake, “No, no es la lluvia. Es muy temprano. Y lluvia ahorra es muy mala, muy mala. La próxima día será más húmedo y con mucho más calor.”

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Where mamís matter

5/16/2013

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Picture
Photo by Ross Freshwater | All rights reserved
I am not really the biggest fan of Mother’s Day.

It’s one of those holidays that seems to be set up for disappointment, with Hallmark-inspired fantasies of perfectly behaved children that the real world can never live up to. The very act of mothering seems to conflict with Mother’s Day dreams of a pampered day ‘off,’ despite the fact that mothering is what we’re supposed to be celebrating. Never mind when real life (read: AP exams) requires Dad to work all weekend and Mom to do double child-care duty. Or when your rambunctious toddler makes a lovely meal out (or in!) seem more stressful than that easy box of mac-and-cheese. Or when your four-month-old cries his little heart out as the soundtrack to your day (or worse: night). This year, I really could have done without Mother’s Day. I would have been happy with a Let Mom Sleep Just a Little Day.

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    About 

    While living in Mexico, I joked that speaking Spanish forced me to be far more Zen about life: Since I could only speak in the present tense, I was forced to just live in that present tense.

    This blog began as regular travel emails when I was a naive undergrad exploring the globe, my meditations on wherever I was on that school break (or break from school). It has since grown into something more, a record of parenting, teaching, politicking, community-building, struggling, healing, exploring, growing, and laughing -- a record of my present tense.

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    Like what you see? That's mostly Ross Freshwater. Check out my talented partner-in-life's photo gallery.

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melissa.gibson [at] marquette.edu
office | 414.288.1421

Marquette University College of Education
Department of Educational Policy & Leadership
561 N 15th St | 113H Schroeder Complex

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© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Photos used under Creative Commons from tedeytan, Stig Nygaard, Matt From London, shixart1985, Ted Rabbitts