Starting Out on a Journey

I finally decided to join the land of blogging, though knowing me, I probably will not do a very good job of keeping up with it. I'm going to try though, especially because I often need a place to vent and just talk about the happenings in my life. I also just want a place to chronicle my 1st year of teaching so that I don't forget about it in the fall. 2009 has definitely been a year of many firsts for me.

College Graduation
How many people can say they're a college graduate? Honestly, out of my 60 or so classmates that I graduated high school with, few have gone the college route. No, college isn't for everyone, but it definitely gives you a bump up in life with more job opportunities and less worry. Expensive? Yes, and I do have a few loans I have to pay off, but it was well worth it. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies degree in May. I had never before felt so accomplished in my life, and yet at the same time, I was filled with a strong sense of "now what?" Worked 17 years of my life to get to this point, can I really make it in the big bad world without that comfy cushion beneath me? Turns out, I can! :)

Prince Charming
April 11 was the day I became part of a new equation. It was no longer just me to think about, it was "we." It was on this day that my boyfriend and I became a couple, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. I've never been a girl with the most confidence, one who can easily go up to guys and charm my way into their hearts. In high school I hadn't quite come out of my shell in that sense, and so I remained virtually boyfriendless. I was sure I was doomed into a life of solitude forever, that my Prince Charming had taken a wrong turn and got himself very much lost and would never find me as a result. They say love finds you when you're not expecting it, and that's very much true. He and I share some of the same friends, and even my ex roommate knew him, yet strangely enough, we didn't cross paths. After I'd pledged my faith in God to bring someone into my life, after a breakup that convinced me men suck, and after I'd grown used to the single life and was quite content with it, he found me. We met in the latter part of 2008, double dated a couple of times with my friend and her boyfriend, and yet I still found myself hesitant and not ready. Months passed and it was Valentine's Day, all my friends and family seemed to be in relationships, and something compelled me to text this boy. I don't know why he popped into my head out of the blue like that, but something told me to do it. He later told me that he was getting ready to give up on me completely when I'd texted him that day. God involving himself in my life? I definitely think so. We've been going strong for nearly 9 months now, and I couldn't be happier. I never thought a relationship could be so easy, but he is definitely a blessing that I never thought I'd see. Have I met my future husband? Stay tuned, anything's possible. ;)

The Best Birthday Present I Could Have Asked For
As college graduation loomed, the big worry was whether or not I would find a job right away or if I'd be stuck substituting for a year. With the economy the way it is, less teachers retired and less moved away to teach elsewhere, so there were less jobs available. And yet I recieved phone calls for interviews very quickly. The week of the 8th I had 3 job interviews in fact, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The first day I interviewed for a 1st/2nd grade position, the second day (which just so happened to be my birthday) I interviewed for a 1st grade position, and the third day I interviewed for a kindergarten position. Prior to this, I had always told myself that kindergarten was too young for me, that I wanted at least 1st grade. God obviously had other plans for me! I interviewed at Ramirez on a dreary rainy Thursday morning, and the interview went amazingly well. Principal was nice, and seemed to be impressed and interested with what I had to say, so I left feeling really good about it. I was told by all that I would have to wait until the following week to find out anything, yet by this point I was so desperate to have a job that I told myself I would accept whatever offer came to me first. I didn't have to wait long! The very next day I recieved a phone call informing me that the 3rd school with the kindergarten position open wanted me. I didn't even hesitate to say yes! I later found out from the school secretary that right after the interview was over he knew he wanted me, despite the fact that he still had to interview a couple of other people.

I Survive My 1st Semester!
Teaching any grade is never easy, but pair a 1st year of teaching with doing it in kindergarten and you get quite a bit of stress out of it. I worked diligently to get my room decorated and organized, and my organization has definitely taken a backseat. It's much easier to often set things out and not put them away, and because of that, I have spent many a long evening working to get things back in order. I'm getting better about it though and have a good filing system going now. Looking back at my very first day and up to now, things have definitely gotten much better and easier. I don't go home stressing out everyday, and I actually know what I'm doing and feel comfortable in it. For a couple of weeks, I would actually wake up every night literally teaching in my sleep, something that I'm told was due to stress. It hasn't happened since, so I'm taking that as a very good sign. I thought I was going crazy there for a while. I have had some great "a-ha" moments with my kiddos, and those are the moments that make all of the stressful times well worth it. The reading curriculum actually seems to be helping most of them also. We're starting to read simple words and using our word wall, and they're READING words! Blows my mind that I have taught them this, and makes me all the more confident that I will send them onto 1st grade in great shape. I've got 2 kiddos that I'm worried about though. One is just too young (turned 5 a couple of days after school started) in the maturity sense, and the other just sits there like a bump on a log and has literally made very little observable progress. They're struggling now, and if I don't get them up now, they'll struggle for years to come. Here's to hoping the lightbulb goes off when school resumes in January. I have the best co teachers I could ask for, ones who are willing to help me and are willing to listen and hear my ideas. Another wonderful blessing is that my school has been blessed with SMARTboards in every classroom. Mine should be mounted when I go back to school or the following week. If you've never seen or worked with one, you are very much missing out. What an awesome teaching tool that I wish I could have had in my elementary school career. Think interactive white board that enables your finger to be the mouse to a computer. I have the best job in the world, hands down!

I cannot wait to see what 2010 has in store for me, but I'm ready! Though I don't have any New Year's resolutions per se, I definitely want to work on a few things. I want to strengthen my relationship with God and with my boyfriend. I also want to become more organized in my classroom and at home and keep things in less disarray. Rather than set out a single resolution to accomplish over the entire year, I like the idea of setting daily and/or weekly goals to accomplish. I want to try waking up each day with something in mind that needs to be accomplished.

On that note, I'm going to end this first entry with the following quote, as I aim to live by this:

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."
- Leo Rosten