Reese Stewart

My friend Reese went out of her way a week ago to help me conquer one very important item off of my 24-before-25 list: bake a cake from scratch. Now, to the common girl, this may not seem like that big of an accomplishment. But alas, I had only ever dared to use a pre made box mix. She came over to my apartment, Trader Joe's bag and hand mixer in tow. She got the recipe from a cookbook produced by two hipster bakers in Brooklyn, so you knew it had to be good. Our end product was a chocolate-hazelnut-creamy-buttery-explosion-of-deliciousness.

I learned a few things that day. One, Reese is a baking genius. Two, the more butter, the better. Three, licking out the bowl of homemade batter is worth the extra effort. Gracias a mi hermana de una madre diferente por tu ayuda. It was a fun thing to accomplish.

The Master at work. 

The finished product. Nom. 

Press Pause

It is really here. Fall Break.

Those words have such a delicious taste as I type them on my old and on-its-last-legs MacBook. I'm sitting at an outside table at a Pizza-by-the-slice joint on Main Street of a quaint little town called Safety Harbor and this is my view: 

Yes, those are palm trees you are seeing! I'm in Florida visiting the one and only Hannah Joy Schaap for four days while my students and I get a break from school and one another. Hannah is just one of those girls - full of adventure and saturated with independence - and catching up with her is like a gulp of fresh air. This chick takes trips to Kenya, bikes across the country, and moves her whole life from the midwest on her own to become a fabulous first-grade teacher in Florida. She has her own opinions and ideas and follows them. She takes time out of life's routine to enjoy herself. On top of all of that she has such a caring and encouraging and happy and giving heart. She is a year younger than my grade in college, but I look up to her for all of this. So here I am, in the sunshine and so so thankful for this time off. I needed it. 

October, as I'm sure all teachers might tell you, is the perfect time for a week off. We all seem to get in a funk at this time in the school year.  Room 25 and I have completed the first quarter of our school year together and as we are feeling the days start to get shorter and the nights stretch out to get longer, fall beak is just what the doctor ordered. 

I realized in the last month that, although I was busy and my life was full of great things to do, I wasn't always making time for the good things that make me feel centered, balanced, and, frankly, like me. Between Brian's friends and mine, we've had 5 weddings in 4 weeks. The weekends have been devoted to roadtripping and gift buying, and the weekdays devoted to catch-up. I haven't, in the chaos, made the time to write in my journal, write on my blog, read books I like, or read the Bible. Of course, I've had the time. We all have the time. But when I didn't make the time, the time that I had was swallowed up in other little things. I was staying up late to cram, pressing snooze, rushing my mornings, saying yes to everything that I should do, and no the things that I need to do. I think we all do that in different weeks and months and times of our life, and all that we need is a day, a morning, or even a few minutes to hit pause and take stock. 

When I think back to last year's fall break, I was dreading the return to school as soon as the break began. I was worried and anxious and nervous and hated going to work and overwhelmed at this unbalanced life I was leading. I suppose I still have to work on that balance, of course, but I like where I'm at much more this time around. This year, on fall break, I'm doing a little catch-up on school work of course, but I'm looking ahead to the coming quarters of school, changes in seasons of weather, time with people I love, and more open weekends with contentment and even a little excitement. 

Maybe my life won't ever be balanced, but I can try in the middle of it all to find moments to pause and look around. I can try to find those moments of clarity and reorder the priorities again; to tidy up my to-do list by discarding a few should-dos and adding a few more need-to-dos. 

Cominatchya!

Really long sidenote: Today, I wore leggings as pants for a few hours. Not because it was a fashion statement by any means (I can't stand when girls do that), but because that's what I wore to bed last night with an old State Farm Insurance t-shirt and proceeded to run errands in my pajamas after waking up this morning. Also, since I had gone about my busywork throughout the day sans showering, I just kept with the grossness and decided a run would make me smell even better. As I made my way around town and back to my country roads, I started to daydream and did not see the huge branch of leaves from the maple tree on a passing lawn. I proceeded to run directly into it, getting a face full of leaves. I reacted as though I had been electrocuted and flailed in all awkward directions, only to look up and see the old man across the street who was checking his mail start to laugh at me. 


ANYWAY...


Down to business. Teach for America is COMING UP SOON and I am continually doing things to get ready for it. I have "To-Do" items to cross off each and every day in addition to the never-ending packing/unpacking process I have as the aftermath of living away at college for four years. First, here's a  few facts about what it means to be in Teach For America:

- I'm not an education major, but I will be teaching!
- Teach For America employs the philosophy that it is important to have leaders in teaching positions for underachieving classrooms
- I will get my teaching certification/licensing through classes at Dominican University in Chicago
- I am officially a 2012 Chicago Corps Member, which basically means I am in this year's "class" of TFA people who are beginning their two-year commitments to teaching through this program

Here's a little timeline for what's coming up for me:

JUNE 13: Induction.
This is like FYF for you Trinity people, or Orientation for any other normal person. It takes place at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) where I'll move in and live for about 5-6 weeks for the Institute training time that follows. These first few days are what get us in the mindset for our training. I'm going to venture a guess that it will be ENTHUSIASTIC and FULL OF ACTIVITIES with lots of SMILING CAMP-COUNSELOR TYPES FACILITATING GROUP DYNAMICS! Believe me, I know. I'm a card-carrying camp-counselor-hyperactive-group-activity girl from my high school and college years. The get-to-know-you games will be in abundance, I can only imagine. Better start thinking of my "one interesting fact" right now. Maybe I'll go with my mad hula hoop skillz that last for hours. Or the fact that I can say the alphabet backwards. Those are my two go-to interesting facts.

JUNE 17: Institute.
This is where we get down to the nitty gritty. Training and summer school teaching. I'll be getting on a bus at about 6:00 AM with a packed lunch, teaching little children important things, heading back on a bus in the evening, lesson planning until late, crashing in bed, and repeating. This is our "student teaching," if you will. Since TFA (get used to that abbreviation and many others. sorry.) uses alternative licensing programs for their corps members (remember, we are mostly non-education majors) during this time I will also begin classes at Dominican University for my certification. As if I needed something to fill up all that spare time I'll be having, right?

August 1: First Day of School at LEARN
HOLY COW. That date is coming up very quickly, in my mind. Before this day I'll take part in an orientation for my specific school, the LEARN Network's Campell campus, and figure out what grade I'm teaching as well as my classroom setup. I can fill you in on that more later of what that really looks like. As of now, I'm praying for peace and confidence and energy and gusto as I look ahead to start the school year on the right foot.

So, there you have it. The blueprint of my summer. (I didn't include all the weddings, though, I didn't want to overwhelm you.) Until June 13, I am maddeningly getting my life/stuff in order, working on Institute pre-work and pre-reading (of which there is about 40-50 hours), and slowly trying to work out a living situation (say a prayer!). Don't worry, I'm leaving plenty of time for Jeopardy each night. Of course. It's going to be a crazy but awesome summer!

Photo evidence that I am actually making headway
on going through my stuff. This is all off to Goodwill; hopefully
many more trips to the thrift store are coming up!