School is out, grades are in, and break has begun. Transitions are sometimes smooth, sometimes rocky, sometimes just bleh. I’ve been somewhere in between the three, sort of waffling between the joy of having no schedule and the angst of having no schedule. Though in possession of a long To Do List, it’s always nice to take a few days off, don’t you think? The problem is I’m not good at being off.

I’ve read two books this week, but neither of them have satisfied my desire to be swept away into another world for days on end. While on Twitter yesterday I learned of the documentary, Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,” which I passed on to my friends who are wrapping up the novel with their students.

After reading To Kill a Mockingbird each spring for many years, I realized how much I missed reading Lee’s novel this year. I started in on it yesterday and got to page 90 which, as every freshman English teacher knows, contains the famous quote. It is rather liberating to reread this book without having to focus on similes, metaphors, symbolism and other elements of literature so pertinent to the beloved state curriculum. The language, word choice, sentence structure and small nuances of the rich story which I didn’t have time to explore with my students jump out at me now and have swept me away. Sometimes those sweet, familiar words are just the perfect balm for the restless, transitional soul.