A Lesson of Year 23

So, today was not the greatest day, let alone birthday. The first day of school for Ms. G was not very fun. I'll spare the details beyond saying I had 5 girls and 13 rambunctious boys today. Heaven help me figure out how to get a handle on them. Soon.

Despite the lameness that the majority of the day held, it ended up being pretty good. My awesome new roommate, Hailee, posted on the ward Facebook page that it was my birthday and invited anyone who felt so inclined to come get ice cream with us. I was a little skeptical as to whether anyone would come. I've briefly met lots of people, but don't really have any actual friends yet, you know? But there were a few of us that met up and went over and I was okay with just getting anyone to come...that's how pathetic my life has been the past year or so! But then...there's like a whole group of people waiting when we get there! I was so happy that I got to meet some new people and that some of the people I've gotten a bit acquainted with were there too. And there was ice cream. Which means it was good. Duh.

But, that wasn't the purpose of this entry. At one point, it was down to just a few of us left, and the conversation turned serious (after our semi-intense conversation about the Star Wars saga, of course). One of the guys turned to me and said, "So Stephanie, what is the life lesson you learned this past year of your life?" Wow, what a fantastically deep question! I responded with a laugh and said, "Well, where to even start?! It was a hard year and I learned a lot." I quickly racked my brain to decide what lesson was worthy to be shared, and I was quite pleased with the one that I came up with:

The love that I had for my students over my first year of teaching was incredible. I had this bunch of impressionable kids that were mine. I was in charge of them. I was responsible for what went into their heads, and also their hearts. And I came to love them so much and care so much for their well being and their future. And around the time that school got out for me in June I had this wonderful aha moment. I realized that I was getting just a glimpse of what the Savior's love for us feels like. He loves us so incredibly much and has done so much for us. More than we can even begin to imagine. And after all He has done, He just has to sit and watch us, hoping that we'll take advantage of His labors, but it's all up to us. But in the end, no matter what, He still loves us unconditionally and just hopes we'll make the right choices. And that's how I felt as a teacher. I had done so much for my kids, but in the end I just had to hope that they'd make the right choices. And that was an incredible thing that I learned this year.

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that speech insured some future dates.

Just Another Day

Tomorrow is the first day of school.

Tomorrow is also my birthday.

Happy birthday to me.

Actually, it doesn't really matter to me. It's just another day, right?

Well, not really. Because it's the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

I keep bouncing back and forth between being really kind of excited and being a little nervous. I should really be more nervous, I think. It will probably kick in tonight when I'm going to bed, and I'll be super nervous. But, I think I just have a super good feeling about this year because it's not my first year anymore! I actually have a bit of a clue of what I'm doing. It's still going to be a lot of hard work, but I think I'll be better at managing my time and I do already have a lot of lessons from last year I can reuse.

I even already have a great adventure story that I can tell my kids. I went dumpster diving in the school dumpster. This past week, the sixth grade team had just been chucking anything we didn't want out into the hallway and we were going to decide what to do with it later. Well, during our lunch break one day, the custodian decided to just help us out and he cleared it all out to the dumpster. Which was totally fine and we were really grateful...until we realized that a pile of science poster activities we had just bought from the district media center had been in the hallway and were now gone. Whoops. Our bad. Thankfully the dumpster wasn't very full and it was all just boxes and posters. No smelly lunchroom trash. But as I'm sure you can figure out, I was the hero and saved the day by fishing our moon and solar system posters out of the dumpster. Yet another reason why working custodial for two and half years paid off later in life. No reservations whatsoever about just jumping in a dumpster. Now I should apply that principle to other aspects of my life. No fear, I'm just gonna jump right in! Ha...we'll see.

"If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from." -Brigham Young

Yet another reason why Brigham is the man.

Some nights...

I just need Ed to sing me to sleep.

love. love. love. 

love.