In the past 6 months, we have gotten: new passports, new drivers licenses, TSA precheck, Global Entry, FBI background checks, and Brazilian visas.

Applying for our Brazilian work visas was by far the hardest part.  We had to go through a process called apostille, which is basically an internationally recognized certification of documents that is recognized by other countries.  You have to get a document notarized by a notary, then certified by the county clerk, then apostilled by the secretary of the state you live in (not the national Secretary of State).  That’s three confusing government buildings and their correspondingly obscure parking lots.

But we did it!  After we had all of these documents apostilled, we mailed them to Brazil and eventually our visas were approved.  Then more paper work (and FBI background checks), and we sent all of that to the Brazilian consulate in Atlanta.  It’s a little scary to put your passports and your kids’ birth certificates into a mailbox.  But they got there, our visas were affixed, and they got back to us safely.

Everyone loves to have an opinion about bureaucracy, but I have a few thoughts of my own, now that I’ve spent some time navigating multiple levels within two national governments.

The Tennessee county clerk and secretary of state offices were clean, well run and easy to navigate.  People were kind and moved with efficiency.  I kept asking about where to go for an apostille like I didn’t quite believe it was a real thing (it is) and every time they knew exactly what I needed and how to give it to me.  It was also cheap, costing only 80 bucks to get 10 documents done.

The harder thing to apostille was our NYU and Columbia transcripts.  We have to submit those for our work visas because we are applying for a work visa as someone “highly qualified.”  We aren’t in NY state anymore, so we paid a company $150 (each, for David and me) to go get our transcripts and have them apostilled (notary –> county clerk –> secretary of state) and then mailed to us in Tennessee.

Oh, and once our visas were approved, and we mailed our passports to the Brazilian consulate in Atlanta, we had to include $1,450 in money orders .  Yes, $290 each for our visas.

I told a co-worker in a professional development session on mindfulness that we are becoming immigrants to another country.  That’s how Brazil sees us, and it’s correct.  But it’s a strange thing to think about as someone with an American passport, and may strike some as surprising.  She asked me how it felt to be an immigrant to another country.  That’s an interesting question.

First, it’s made me feel even more compassion for immigrants to the US.  We have a company guiding us through this and doing some of it on our behalf and it is still hard.  And I have 2 degrees, a solid income, and a support system.  The school in Brazil is reimbursing us for all visa-related expenses.  This is so hard in the best of circumstances.  And not the kind of thing you enter into lightly.

Second, I feel so lucky that I happened to be born in Ohio and was able to have the opportunities that led another country to consider me “highly qualified.”  It was the luck of the draw that I was well educated and was able to get 2 degrees from great universities and 11 years of teaching experience.  If I’d been born elsewhere, it’s likely that as a woman I would not have been educated or offered those same opportunities.  I’m very, very lucky.

And yet here I am leaving it.  That’s not lost on me.  I’m a very privileged immigrant with a passport to a country that exists and that I can return to and making a living in.  I’m not destitute or desperate.  I think about the images of bombed out buildings and people fleeing Syria.  They don’t have the luxury of smooth bureaucracy and duplicate copies of all their vital documents.

I feel fortunate to have bureaucracy.  Yes, the DMV took an hour and a half, but I got a license.  I have ID.  I can show someone who I am.  How many millions of refugees don’t have any records like that?  How many people live without documents?  Maybe these documents are lovely and this bureaucracy is a sign of privilege.  If so, I’ll take my labyrinthine hallways and always-full parking lots, if I get what I need at the end.

The Griswolds have big news!  In July 2018, we are making a big international move.  Below is something I’ve written and shared with my students and colleagues at my current school.  NB: All of the seniors at my school give a speech during their senior year.  I’ve been here seven years, so I’ve heard roughly 700 speeches.  I decided that as I am moving on to my next chapter, it was fitting to write my own “senior” speech.

This semester I’ve been teaching my students about the Hero’s Journey.  Developed by Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey is a way to describe the pattern of stories throughout different cultures and eras.  Even across oceans and millennia, there is a pattern to the stories that we humans tell, and Joseph Campbell studied it and described its features.

The first stage is the hero in their normal world.  The status quo.  But something happens: an inciting incident occurs, and the hero receives the call to adventure.  It’s the moment that turns a regular day into an extraordinary one, one that kicks off a journey that takes the hero far from home.  

How fitting that just as I’m teaching this story structure, I write to share with you that the Griswolds are heeding the call to adventure.  In July we will be moving as a family to São Paulo, Brazil to teach at The Graded School, an American International School.  

Many of you know that I grew up overseas with my family.  When I was 10 we moved from Cincinnati to Mexico City, and at the end of 6th grade, we moved to Caracas,Venezuela, where I lived until I graduated from high school.  I attended an international school in Caracas where 27 languages were spoken.  I became fluent in Spanish and conversational in Portuguese.  And I always thought that some day my life would lead me back to an international life.  

Now that our oldest, Calvin, has started Kindergarten, we started thinking about the educational experience we want for him.  We also started to think about the next adventure and challenge for us as educators.  Now that our family is complete, the time feels right to set off.  

But none of this would be possible if it hadn’t been for Harpeth Hall.  When we moved here in 2011 from New York, I thought seriously about leaving the profession.  I was coming from 4 challenging years of teaching in New York City public and charter schools.  I was approaching burn-out.  Borders Bookstore had just declared bankruptcy and I thought, “Well, there went my back up plan!”  

I was so lucky to get hired to teach at this amazing institution.  Far from burning out, I reached new heights as an educator because of Harpeth Hall.  Collaborating and learning with my amazing English department colleagues was a transformative experience.  Their experience and expertise, their commitment to the students, their reflection and openness on their own teaching: these things inspired and uplifted me.  I became the educator I was always meant to be because of Harpeth Hall.  I learned not just from my department, but from all of the faculty and staff.  I learned about what a team of people can do when they are all united to work for a common goal.  From our administration I learned about grace, about strength, about humanity.  And all of these lessons have been formative.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned from teaching amazing students.  The students at Harpeth Hall let me be creative, let me challenge myself, let me learn more than I thought possible about teaching and learning.  Over my seven years at Harpeth Hall, my students’ dedication, effort, and creativity have made this such an amazing place to work.  I will always carry with me the earnest desire to learn and grow that they brought to school each day.

Moving to Brazil and teaching at an international school would not have been possible had we not spent these 7 years at Harpeth Hall.  When we were told that we were attractive candidates, I knew that Harpeth Hall was to thank.  

So, I feel that I am now writing my own senior speech.  I imagine that I am looking out at a theater of my chosen family.  I feel gratitude for each and every one of you.  For how you’ve pushed me, supported me, questioned me, cheered me on.  Our departure, our call to adventure, is not an unhappy ending, but the beginning of an exciting new chapter.  It is bittersweet for us, to know that we will be leaving a fantastic place filled with wonderful people.  But it also feels right.  

We will take each of you with us when we go.  Your ears will burn next year with tropical heat because we will be singing your praises and carrying your lessons with us.  We hope that we can keep our connection to Harpeth Hall alive, and see this new chapter for us as a new chapter for you as well.  A new partnership with the southern hemisphere.  Come on, I’m sure Harpeth Hall will spring for plane tickets to Brazil so that you can come check out what we’re doing!!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.  

With Love,

Meg Griswold, Class of 2018