Now that I have joined the ranks of unemployed college graduates, I'm hoping I'll have more time to blog. Although, I don't know how much I'll have to blog about... But anyways. I had the opportunity to observe at my middle school last week, and in a conversation with my 6th grade teacher, she recalled my strength as a writer and asked if I still write as much as I did in 6th grade. I admitted that I really don't write very much anymore, what with the business and craziness that is college. But she reminded me of my love of writing, and that was one of the reasons I started this blog; I missed writing for fun. So here's to a new year with more blog posts.
I'm currently sitting in Woods, my favorite coffee shop that I was sadly deprived of during my 4.5 years in the midwest. It feels a little weird to have the freedom to just sit and chill and write on a Thursday morning-shouldn't I be in class like all my friends back in Wheaton? Or at least working on homework? Or maybe be at work? Thus is the strangeness of graduating as an education major in December. Teaching jobs are a rarity, and though I'm getting on some sub lists, these things take time. So I'm going to use my free time to reflect on the past year, because 2015 was a big one.
2015 was a year of firsts and lasts. As I thought back on the last year, the lasts come to mind much more quickly than the firsts. Yet, there were a lot of firsts, so I have to use both to describe the past year.
Let's start with the lasts:
-Spring semester 2015 was my last spring in Wheaton, and my last semester with my friends that have been with me since the beginning.
-My last of all the spring semester events
-My last time seeing friends for who knows how long, (thank goodness for weddings and heaven. Mostly heaven, but weddings are nice in the mean time) whether it was in May, August, September, November, or December.
-Last day of student teaching
-Last time going to saga
-Last time going to chapel
-Last time walking around campus
-Last time at HoneyRock
-Last time living with roommates for the foreseeable future
-Last college class
-Last college paper
Some of these were sad, tearful moments, others were celebratory. Lasts are bittersweet as they represent the end of one thing, but they also represent the start of something new.
Now for the firsts:
-First time away from home for a year (I find it so so funny/ironic that I was the only one of my siblings to go a year away from home during college, yet I'm the only one that ended up moving back home and living with Mom and Dad after graduation.)
-First time actually lesson planning. Like where I understood what I was doing and had reasons for planning the way I did, unlike the lessons I prepared for other classes. I found my very first lesson plan from my sophomore year as I was going through stuff on my computer. It was pretty awful.
-First time teaching one of my own lessons to real kids
-First time going by Miss Gibson. It's still weird to me that there are children in the world that only know me as Miss Gibson and have no idea what my first name is (some probably don't even realize I have a first name).
-First serious injury in my adult life (yay for dislocated knee caps!)
-First day of student teaching/first day of school as a teacher
-First time having a classroom to myself
-First time filling out real life job applications. Like jobs that require a college degree.
Like I said, 2015 was a huge year for me. I rediscovered my passion for teaching, gained confidence as a teacher, made new friends only to have to say goodbye to them shortly there after, had my heart stolen by 26 precious 4th graders that I miss so so much, sighed a huge sigh of relief when I turned in my last college paper, and bawled my eyes out as I said goodbye to people and a place that have been so important, influential, and formative to me for the past 4.5 years.
It was hard to let 2015 go as it meant letting go of the familiar and the comfortable. 2016 is a year of unknown, which is absolutely terrifying. But I'm grateful for such a solid year behind me, and am ready to leap into the unknown.
