Monday, October 5, 2009

New Chapter


I open my eyes some mornings still in shock of the day in front of me.

Last August through February I woke up in South Africa, traveling and experiencing a far away culture and people. March through August I woke up living in a new house back with my parents, waitressing nights and weekends, waking up when I wanted to and loving my Salsa Nights and T-Ball. Now when I wake up, all those people and places and experiences are still fresh on my mind, but life in front of me has changed dramatically again. Within a few days I stopped working at Olive Garden, started a new full time job, started three masters classes, changed my degree and said good bye to any second of free time. All these changes with the changes of people and time and mind frames that go with them all equaled up to a lot!

Not going to lie, that was a month ago and I'm finally over the urge to cry at any moment.

My new ideal day is waking up at 5ish, studying for a few hours, working from 8-4, and going to classes Tuesday and Wednesday (until 10pm!) nights at UMKC and studying every spare second in between. It's tough- that's the bad news, the good news is, I'm learning to like it a lot- or at least survive.

My new job is being a Para Professional in an elementary school in Raytown. I work in a self contained classroom of seven, 5-7 year old boys with Autism or Downsyndrom. Normal days include screaming meltdowns, violent tantrums, and chasing down one little boy that escapes and tries to run away. Normal days also include sweet moments of little boys looking out for each other and saying some hilarious things. I'm learning a whole new way to teach and I work with awesome woman, that thankfully know a lot more about what they're doing than I do!

Just as I was starting my Masters degree, I changed it to a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Multiculturalism. I don’t' know how this math works out, but for my 3 classes I have 8 books to read, with the awesome kind of chapters that are 50-100 pages long. I have been surprisingly shocked though at how interested I am in most of my reading. It's all about learning how to teach students with diverse cultures and include social justice in your teaching, which is right up my ally.

So that's it, this is the new chapter I'm in now. It's hard because with new and evermounting responsibilities it takes away from keeping up with people I care about. If you're reading this you're probably one of them!

My mom has been such awesome support for me.