Sunshine, Sit-ups, and Strawberries

Today is one of those days where I am incredibly grateful to be alive. Occasionally I sit back and look at my incredible blessings (sunny days will bring that out in anyone) and am in awe at everything the Lord has given me, the least of which is sunshine. But oh! how sunshine can make the biggest difference in the ability to see those blessings, which is reminiscent of the principle of light and darkness in the Gospel. The more light and truth we have in our lives, the more we see and understand about the world, appreciate the beauty of nature, trials, and people, and increase our happiness and joy. In fact, we need those moments in life -when the sun shines through the clouds - to keep us going through the winters of our lives. But if we don't take the time out of our busy lives to actually notice the light and look around, seeing the beauty, than we miss the moments of hope the Lord wishes to bless us with.

I live for days like today. Majestic early mornings, with the sun shining through the mountains; the company of positive, uplifting people who see the worth in others; the conquering of recurring goals that have never been met before; new resolutions to make the next phase of my life the best one yet. When life looks this bright and hopeful, it seems like I could be happy forever. But in reality, nothing is really different this week than last week, except it's warmer and sunnier. My situation in life hasn't changed. I still have the same weaknesses and struggle with the same problems. But, I am (hopefully) done being scared of the future. Being scared of my life and the person I could become. I'm going to finally work towards the goals I've set for myself, and finally achieve them. I know it won't be easy, but that's okay. I can do hard things, right? :) We all can. That's the beauty of life!

Venting

I feel like I've been inundated with so much pressure lately! I mean, goodness, I have to be so on top of everything with my job (hormonal 7th graders, administrative evaluations, cooperative work, parents). In order to do all of this I have to get to sleep ridiculously early, which affects my social life. My whole life revolves around work and it's starting to get to me. As much as I love teaching, I need some ME time, you know? Time to just relax and be myself and not have to worry about putting on a happy face and managing 180 middle schoolers. I'm so excited to be going down to Vegas this weekend to spend time with my family. Hopefully that will give me a nice boost going into the next little while before SPRING BREAK! Which I'm very excited about. :)

On the other hand, I'm grateful that life is a little hard. I've been extremely blessed to have the last year or so be relatively easy-going. It's like the Lord was giving me some time to recuperate from my last major growing experience. Now, apparently, I'm ready for another one. It's been great to turn to the Lord again and work on my weaknesses and learn so much. I mean, really, we don't have the chance to work on those when things are going well. And I don't know about you, but I'm shooting for perfection, and goodness knows I'm a long way from it. I need every trial that comes my way. Now, let's see if there are any good massage places I can visit in Vegas... :) Or, watch my recent favorite video again:

Heart Break

So this kid comes into my class during prep. He's a great kid, but he doesn't do hardly anything. This was our conversation (to the best of my remembrance):

Me: You know I worry about you right?
Him: No. Really? I always thought teachers didn't care.
Me: Not true, you have no idea (thinking of how often we discuss our kids)
Him: Well, maybe out of state teachers. They always told me that they didn't care what they did, because they were there to get paid and get out.
Me: Well, that's definitely not me. I'm not doing this job for the money, that's for sure.
Him: Then why do you teach?
Me: Because I care about you kids and I want to make a difference in your lives. I could have any job I wanted, but I'm teaching?
Him: But why?
Me: Good teachers are some of the most influential people.
Him: Well, then I've had some bad teachers.

It cut me to my heart!! How can there be so many teachers out there just doing it for the (pitiful amount of) money? I mean, we have so much influence and can change so much in the future generation's lives, and the kids don't even know that we care about them! This same student thought I didn't like him for the longest time till I toldl him I did. I know that I could do so much more for these kids. I just wish I had the time and resources to do it.

Teachers everywhere. Take this lesson to heart. You have a voice and a say in these kids lives. Use it! Help them! You have no idea what is going on in their lives and you could be the only stable adult that they know! That is why I became a teacher. Why did you?

Interesting Moments

I'm teaching Reading at a middle school in Sandy right now, and loving it for the most part. Every day something new happens that I just want to share with the world because it's so funny! But the problem is that I don't really believe in Facebook status updates; I just don't want to let the whole world know what's going on in my life. But I figure my blog is something you actually have to put in some effort to read, so I'm going to start sharing those interesting moments on my blog.

New Part of Life

I found a job! I'll be teaching at Albion Middle School in Sandy, Utah. 7th and 8th grade Reading classes... which is awesome considering how much I love reading! And I'm teaching 7th grade, which is my favorite age so far. :) I'm so excited to start planning and teaching students, and actually be getting paid to do it! The commute is kind of long, but I'll be okay for now. I know it'll be super tough, especially this first year, but I'm up for the challenge! August cannot come fast enough... well... probably could... but oh well. I'll be leaving for Ecuador in a couple weeks, and my brother came home this last week from his mission! Life is so great right now! The only bummer is that my grandpa is pretty sick still, and I don't know what's going to happen in that aspect. Pray for him!

I am a college graduate. Crazy! I kind of thought this time would never come, but somehow, time always passes. Funny how that happens. I graduated with an English Teaching degree, and am currently looking for a teaching job. It's a tough one, and I'm really hoping I'll get one and won't have to substitute for another year. That would be... dismal.

I competed in some ballroom dance this last year, though I wish I could have done more before graduating. It was really fun! And I'm going to keep going, eventually. Hopefully.

And I loved the student teaching I got to do this last semester! I had 6 classes of 7th graders, all of which were wonderful. Here's a couple of pictures of my last day with one of my classes.

And my brother gets home from Ecuador in like 3 days! I'm so excited to see him again! Then, hopefully, we'll be making a trip down there as a family ourselves! I just wish I had a good summer job right now. Money is tight after graduating, and soon I'll have to start paying off those student loans. Yikes!

Catching up

Yeah... Catching up is not happening. Everyone will just have to remain in the dark about what happened from last December till now. But no worries! All you need to know is that I'm doing my last semester of classes at BYU and loving it! I'm learning all this sweet stuff about becoming an English Teacher and despite not getting enough sleep, enjoy every second. I'll be student teaching in January at Lehi Jr. High, which means I graduate in April and get to start teaching! Getting to switch from being behind the desk to in front of them will be such a nice change. Well, I'll try to keep up on here, though I can't make any promises. Oh, the most exciting thing that has happened to me lately, I bought a netbook! It's cute and blue and has a webcam and everything! So yeah, that's probably how I'll be keeping up on this. More updates coming soon!