Shiprock, New Mexico is just east of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona where I started my teaching career on the Navajo Reservation. On a January day, I packed my car in the ice and snow and with my friend Suzie in convoy, headed west. I felt like Columbus when he thought he would drop off the edge of the earth.

The move was major. I had purchased my first car and prayed that the light would stay green so I wouldn't have to shift as I went up my first hill. I had never been so far from home or so far away from the familiar, like green trees and grass and blue lakes and clean water. I didn't know how to pronounce the name of the town I was going to and had no idea what my teaching assignment would entail. But, I was an expert on Navajo culture. I had read one book. Oh my! I could handle "them Indians" (no disrespect intended) since I had just come from a teaching job in an inner city school. Needless to say, I had more to learn than just shifting my car.

I was thinking about my experience today. It changed my world-view and my life. Who would have imagined?