I hate change, and I probably have said that in more blogs than not. My mom told me when I was leaving Gruver that change is part of life and my life will always be changing so embrace it. This is not the first time I have heard this nor the last time I will be told. As I begin the new semester, I am trying to embrace change as a good thing. I like routines, I like schedules, I like structure and I don't like when any of these change...even in the least bit. I am a type A person so even though I would say that I am pretty "flexible" in general, I am super time oriented. Beginning this new year and ending the last has brought wonderful opportunities into my life, so I am trying to embrace them--gracefully.
This past semester was by far the most difficult five months of my academic career, and I would never wish to redo them. I struggled with pretty much everything going on in my life. Looking back on the past months I am so thankful for the people in my life who stuck it out with me and always brought sunshine into my life when I could only see the rain. My mom was a huge rock during everything. I have always called her everyday since I moved away but I'm pretty sure I called her every five hours this semester crying about something different. We worked really hard to make our relationship better this semester and that is something that I am very thankful for--it really does take two. I have learned so much about the kind of work relationships take since leaving for college and am so glad to always have her fighting for me. My dad always gives me something to laugh about and is there to keep my mom sane when I call more than once a day. They are special people--Papoo always told them their lives weren't complete until they had a girl. I'm thankful for my grandparents (all of them) who are by far my biggest fan club and are always praying for me, my brothers who keep me grounded, and especially Wid and Peter who have been such a huge part of my life since moving to Austin. The people who live with me are an extension of my family and are friends I am so blessed to have.
This girl and all of the people who have been a part of my life this semester at SEU were incredible. I was told at the beginning of the semester that I needed to surround myself with people who were fighting for me--looking back I'm so thankful that these people were there.
I will graduate in a little over four months which seems incredible. I love (no really I hate it) when people ask me what my plans are after I graduate. I'm graduating with a degree in English, which people constantly tell me is useless. Lord have mercy child what are you going to do with a degree in English? There are also people who love to tell me how awful the job market is and how impossible it will be for me to find one. Yes, finding a job and knowing what I am going to do after college was and is still overwhelming. I worked multiple internships last semester and one in particular stood out amongst the rest--my internship with
Teach For America.
I became invested in the education movement in the states after returning from Chile and seeing the education protests every week in the streets. Until August, I was almost positive I would go abroad again--this time as a teacher. However, I came home and realized that there were students in our country who did not have access to the educational opportunities I had always taken for granted. I began pursing TFA in August and submitted my application to be a coprs member and teacher mid-semester. After months of waiting and a difficult interview day, I received my acceptance notification this past Monday. The TFA application process is rather long and if/when you get to the final stage you submit your teaching preferences and locations. I put the Rio Grande Valley as my number one location and high school English, Spanish, and math as my number one subject preferences. There was never a point where I was sure that I would get the job. On Monday, when the email came, I found out that I had been placed in the
Rio Grande Valley teaching high school English for two years. It was the biggest blessing coming on the tail end of a season of struggles. I am excited and nervous about the future endeavors. I know that this will not be an easy job and I will face some of the biggest challenges of my life. I hope to work to close the achievement gap and fight for students just like so many people have fought for me.
Even though it is change, I am looking forward to my final semester at SEU. I am taking a class just for fun (which I have never done), taking my last English classes, and finishing the honors program by doing a Spanish internship. I also will continue two of my internships from the fall, work with starting a student organization, and playing in the jazz band. However, aside from all of this my main focus is to get healthy. No, I am not an "unhealthy" person, whatever that means, but I do want to work on getting my immune system back and feeling good. I think that there are so many things encompassed in being healthy and outside of how my illnesses function I want to work on healthy thinking--because that always gets me into trouble. I'm totally bad at it, most people are. During this effort, I am going to start by laughing more (worrying less will come later...baby steps). I want to enjoy my last semester in college and have fun with the people I spend it with. Believe me, the people I am friends with are funny and I think laughter is a good place to start.
