Finding My Creative Outlet Again...

Well I suppose I should start this new blogging endeavour with a celebration.  That celebration is FREE TIME!  This is the first school year since 2008-2009 that I haven't been working full time and going to graduate school. 

I knew after my first year of teaching that I wasn't doing anybody any good by continuing the hiatus I was on.  Undergraduate school doesn't prepare you for what you encounter in the "real world". I went to work feeling defeated quite often.  I knew I had a lot of learning to do but, I yearned to be "that teacher" for someone who never had the opportunity to feel appreciated by a teacher. So, I dusted off my old desktop, wrote a letter to Appalachian's Cratis G. Williams graduate school, paid $50.00 and enrolled myself into the Reading Education program.  Little did I know that I would be becoming MUCH busier than I had ever anticipated.

Getting back into a school swing was tough.  I had only been out a year from undergrad, but having to read scholarly articles and write papers and blog and meet and you-name-it-I-did-it was quite a bit.  Not to mention that Cruz and I (he's the two-legged one if you read my caption, by-the-way) had decided to begin our quest to create a dream home of our own.  Oh, yeah, and the great state of NC, yeah, they laid me off after I began teaching, so I was also on a job hunt as well.  However, I digress, and let me focus on the point at hand, graduate school.

I started my new teaching job (second year) at a great school in WS/FCS.  I was new, my immediate family was going through quite the tumultuous uproar and our staff were moving into a new building.  So at this point I was in deeper than I'd ever been before.  But, with help of friends, co-workers and family, I found strength in the ups and downs of my family and in the move from one building to another.  I found my niche, if you will, at work and landed firmly on my feet back on the home front.  All the while, I was still working my way through graduate school, learning amazing things about teaching reading to children who couldn't.

Countless Saturdays were spent sipping over-priced hot chocolate at Starbucks.  Many early alarms were set on Sunday mornings to read articles before anyone else even stirred.  Friday nights with girlfriends turned into study sessions and blogging responses.  Phone calls to my dad were even cut short, because I had to focus on my studies.  Time management was key, and working ahead kept my from literally drowning in paperwork.  I would spend two-and-three nights a week on one end of the couch while Cruz channel surfed on the other end, and would wake up the sound of the TV being switched off at 11pm.  I questioned myself often what I was doing to my friends and family who had just helped me wedge my way back to some type of normalcy.  But, still, I was pardoned for my early departures from social gatherings and left alone to write numerous responses while everyone else had their own kind of "fun".  I kept thinking about the outcome, that personal goal of completing my degree, and more importantly, helping a needy child who can't.

Now, five years into my teaching career, I am finally finished with graduate school.  I look back on the countless hours spent and couldn't honestly tell you what I did.  I don't know how I did it sometimes, but with the support of family and friends, I did.  With the "You go girls!" and the "You are so hard-workings" and the "Better you-than mes" floating in my head and showing up as texts on my phone and as Facebook posts on my wall, I finally finished this past May.  I won't forget the day I walked into my townhome and saw that measly little package wrapped in bubble wrap and sealed with "DO NOT BEND". I checked the return address and sure enough, Cratis D. Williams Graduate School mailed me, this time. I walked into the living room, package in hand and opened my Master's degree.  That two-legged favorite of mine sat there and told me how proud he was of me and how "smart" I was and I knew it was worth it.  I seldom toot my own horn, but I am honestly proud of what I did and what I went through.  I feel more successful because I now know what to do with that little child who can't.  I don't feel so defeated anymore.

Recently, I was asked to lead staff development for the folks I work for at my school.  I was both overwhelmed and overjoyed at the same time.  I know it is one more thing for teachers to have to endure, but knowing what I know now, and knowing that it works, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share my training and knowledge!  I hope that I can provide for others what I've been provided in my graduate experience.  My creative outlet has been cleaned out and allowed to move past the mode of APA style with right-aligned headers and footers.  My reflective self can now emerge and share the fun that's about to begin in life.  Simply living.