Playing Catch-Up: A Year in Review

In the past 10 months since I last posted on this blog, a lot has happened. Consider this the "catch-up post" that will allow me to start sharing my stories and lessons and musings again, now that life is finally getting back to normal and I can actually spend time writing again (Praise the Lord!).

Many significant things have happened, but there are 5 important ones that will be flavoring my stories from this time forward, as they have changed my life completely.

5. I have decided to continue my education by pursuing a doctoral degree in linguistics. We'll see how that goes, as the application process will extend throughout the summer, and I will not know the results until early next year.

4. I am almost finished with my first master's degree; I'll hopefully graduate with a Master of Arts in Teaching from Lee University in December. This degree has changed my life, mostly because...

3. I taught a year of high school Spanish. All those times that I told people in my life, "I will NEVER be a teacher!"finally caught up with me. I will not be going back to teach next year because of school for myself, but I learned so much, met so many wonderful people, and realized that teaching is only half the job. Teachers are also mentors and guidance counselors and sometimes even friends. They say that the goal of a first-year teacher is to survive, and since I made it through relatively unscathed, I will go ahead and claim that this was a successful year.

2. I became the sponsor of the drama club at the school at which I taught. Although I will not be teaching full-time next year, I have already received permission to come back and volunteer as an "acting coach" of sorts. I never realized how much of an impact theatre had on me in high school and college until I got to start teaching it to others. I have a great group of students, and I cannot wait to see what we can do next year!

1. I started attending a new church. Given that I live in the Bible Belt and churches are almost more populous than gas stations in Cleveland, this doesn't seem like it would be to earth-shattering of a change. But I've been searching for a church that really fit me for the past 5 years, and I think I've finally found it. For now, that's all I'll say on the matter; I need an entire post of its own to fully explain everything that has happened on that front...perhaps more than one, actually.

So the Summer of Recuperation has begun for me. I let a lot of things get so twisted and disorganized in my tenure as a teacher that I'm looking forward to simplifying and straightening everything back out. I have so many lessons learned and subjects about which I have mused, and I can't wait to write them down!