Thankful things:
1) As much as an adjustment that my new job has been I truly enjoy it. To know that I am making a difference in a person's life is an amazing feeling. Not only am I teaching academic skills, but more importantly life skills-skills that come naturally to so many that I have to explicitly teach/show/struggle with my kids to learn. I thought I wanted to work with people with autism before this year. Now I know it is where I belong (just not necessarily in the school setting--more on that below). The people I work with are absolutely fabulous and deal with my questions effectively. They might begin to see the true/crazier Becca come out during the second semester, but I'm not making any promises.
2) I haven't had a sinus infection since October! Whooo--I finally accepted the doctor's ever forceful prodding and got stabbed 78 times to see what was keeping me from breathing. Turns out I'm allergic to life, which I already knew. *Got rid of cats *Take more medicine *Vacumm all the time *Buy special covers for my bed---This girl will not be having any of them allergy shots!
3) I'm blessed to be related to the best crazies. My family drives me nutty; however, they love me and I adore them. They have shaped me into who I am and who I am not and for that I am forever thankful.
4) At the age of 26 the majority of my friends are having babies, newly married, or about to be hitched. I've just started to realize how happy I am to do what I want, when I want, how I want. I'm crazy busy between teaching at the elementary level, teaching at JMU, coaching basketball, teaching Sunday School (gotta keep up with my kinders somehow), visiting friends near and far, and fitting in my random adventures. I know it won't last forever and while I do look forward to finding "THE ONE", sharing my life with him, having kids etc., I am cherishing my me time while it lasts. In the meantime, I'm having a good time being me and listening to my married friends rant about how lucky I am.
Wishful things:
1) I want to complete a half marathon this year. I am willing to walk however much it takes, but do want to run some. The last time I begin training I had to stop because my back flared up and my leg started having seizures again-no that's not what the doc calls it, but that's what I call uncontrollable shaking. After two years of zero running I'm hoping I can ease into a cross training program that focuses on swimming to work on cardio with a few runs per week. We'll see how long I last this time.
2) I am going to say no to people more. I'm a naturally nice person. I cannot help it. I get satisfaction through serving others. It is actually quite selfish. If asked to do something for someone else I typically say yes unless I have already said yes to someone else for that particular time slot. I end up having zero time for myself and get overwhelmed because I don't have enough alone time and then just am not happy. I will tell you no this year, or you can make it easier on me and just not ask me to do things.
3) I need to stop apologizing for things I don't have to be sorry about. Example: I just bought a new car (whooo fine-freaking-inally). Originally I was going to go with one dealer and then decided to go with another one. I felt terrible about it. So terrible that I thought up this long email of why I was sorry and how I would definitely recommend their dealership to others. I thought about sending it and then deleted it. The car salesperson has no emotional connection with me. I don't have to be sorry that I spent my money somewhere else. Example 2:When writing about saying no more I was tempted to apologize in advance for saying no. But, I don't have a reason to apologize for that either--so maybe this wishful thing is to just be more bitchy this year? I will have to work on that.
Random things:
1) I have a new love for tomatoes which I hated up until about a month ago. It wasn't a taste thing, but a texture issue. I'm over it and can't get enough!
2) My basketball team is better than yours. Hands down this is my favorite thing going on in my life right now. My girls are at the perfect age where they can understand the lingo and actually score baskets. They are also in the awkward preteen stage that is perfect for my sarcasm. Fun fact: I bribed them with an ice cream party practice tomorrow if we won our game tonight. They won. Losing is not in our vocabulary.
3) I don't have any big regrets for last year. I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I'm realizing that I'm never going to know what I want to do with my life. I didn't get arrested.
4) There is a 98.438% chance I'm going back to school in the fall. I have worked with people involved in behavior analysis for a few years and this year it has really become apparent that that is what I think I want to move towards as a career choice. I'm satisfied with my job right now, as I said I work with all-stars, but in the future I just don't see it. I see myself working more in a clinical or home setting. That brings me to the cross-roads of waiting until I'm completely burnt out with teaching (which would be detrimental to all involved) or going back to school and getting my degree while teaching. Then when I'm tired of teaching moving on to other things. JMU has lots of things going for it as a school I would like to continue my education at, but I'm also looking into VCU, ODU, and George Mason. The question lingers-what do I want to be when I grow up?
