About Me...

Caterpillar: Who are YOU?

Alice: This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.

The Duchess:
I quite agree with you. And the moral of that is: Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.

~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland


Like Alice, sometimes I feel that the person I am when I wake up in the morning is not necessarily the same person I am when I retire at night. The people I encounter, the conversations I have, the stories I hear, the things I see, all alter my reality and who I become. I continue to reconstruct myself every day. What I can offer in an autobiography is to share some of the constants in my life. I was born Loretta Miceli, the only child of Eduardo and Concetta Miceli, who immigrated to Canada in 1953 and, although, they became Canadian citizens within 5 years, never forgot their Italian heritage. This, they shared with me. It afforded me the opportunity to live two cultures simultaneously. I continue to live in the best of both worlds.

I am a student, a teacher, an educational leader. I am a wife, and a mother of two. However I may morphs from day to day, my husband, Rob, my children, Erica(20) and Robert (16) and my parents (86 & 85) frame who I am at any given time. I have been married for 22 years. We met when we were 13 years old. He studied numbers and became an accountant and I studied literature and became an English teacher. Our children have their dreams. Erica is a 3rd year fine arts student at York University and in the concurrent program in the faculty of education. She dreams of being a dance teacher in a regional arts school. Robert is a grade 11 student. He plays AAA Hockey with the Toronto Red Wings and dreams of being an NHL hockey player. Whatever path they choose to follow, the only advice my husband and I have for them is that they do their best and that they protect their dignity and the dignity of those around them.

Over the course of my life, I have been blessed with friends and family who have loved me and supported me unconditionally. They have helped me celebrate the good times in my life and they’ve been with me during the lowest times in my life. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a survivor and I thank God for having given me a new lease on life. Facing my own mortality certainly gave me a new appreciation for the meaning of life. Each year, for the last 10 years, I have given back by participating in the breast cancer walk. My daughter joins me and we walk for all women and men, past, present and future!

I have been blessed in my professional life, as well. Sometimes I stop and ask myself, How did I get so lucky! I started my teaching career at the age of 23. I was hired to teach a split grade 3/4 class at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Richmond Hill, Ontario for the York Catholic District School Board. I loved it so much, I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for doing what I used to dream about and what I pretended to do every summer when I ran a neighbourhood summer school in my parents’ garage. I stayed in elementary for four years, teaching a grade 4/5 class the following year and then teaching in the intermediate division for 2 years before moving to the secondary panel to teach high school English. I taught English and then became the department head of Library, until 14 years later I was encouraged to apply for a leadership position at the board office, in the capacity of Literacy program resource teacher. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven…imagine, being able to do all the research and reading about literacy that I always wished I could have done and never had the time to do! Three years into that position I was approached and encouraged to move into another leadership role. I am now in my third year as the coordinator of secondary programs and have taught for the York Catholic District School Board for the last 23 years. I love my job…I truly do!

I am a life long learner…I loved school from the first day of kindergarten and I knew then that I never wanted school to end…so my story continues and this Masters program will continue to help me shape who I will be tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, each new day a new experience, a new beginning, a new me!