Why We cracked Up Laughing... My Lunch With Dr Jill Biden [View all]

[Teacher of the Year]

Dr Jill Biden announced that the 2024 State Teachers of the Year and the National Teacher of the Year will be honored by a state dinner at the Whitehouse. What an incredible honor.

During my year of service (Teacher of the Year, is one of those things where you aren't a "past Teacher of the Year" but you are the 2014 Teacher of the Year. We have a "year of service" where we are expected to perform a number of duties. Kind of like a Miss Oregon or a Miss Rhode Island does).

In my year Dr Jill Biden was the Second Lady and hosted us for lunch at the Vice Presidential Mansion. It was a lovely event that came with a photo. When I walked into the room to meet her and get the photo taken she and I both immediately burst into laughter. The Whitehouse had sent us a "dress code" of sorts. They asked for light colors and a warning that patterned shirts/jackets/ties do not photograph well and gave us suggestions on what to wear to the Whitehouse events. Neither one os seemed to have got that memo.

By bright blue shirt and her bright blue dress we're the same color. My houndstooth jacket in blues and my polka dot tie were the exact colors of her vividly striped dress. It gave us the giggles and you can see in the picture what a warm and kind person she is.

A few years later she was the headline speaker at the National Education Association's LGBTQ conference. Again, we both started laughing. My pink shirt and striped pink, Pink and PINK tie matched her dress exactly. We had a second laugh together.

I appreciate and respect Dr Biden on so many levels and I find we have much in common.. That she has stayed in the classroom when life gave her so many opportunities echoes my own life. She respects the profession so much and she gives much of her time to support her peers. But I also appreciate her love of color. Why be a navy blue or a grey when you can be aqua or hot pink?

(I don't know how to add a picture to DU but Alamy has a copy of the photo up and you can see it on their website....but don't buy it from them, for goodness sake. It is a photo taken by the US Government and available on Wikipedia for free. Alamy seems to just take any photo they find and slap a price tag on it, even though they have no ownership of the photo).

https://www.alamy.com/second-lady-dr-jill-biden-and-oregon-teacher-of-the-year-brett-bigham-image456848248.html