Taking the first step

...is always the hardest part of the journey (I think).

Lately I've been realizing how quickly my future is coming at me. It's pretty terrifying, to be honest. I'm in the education program at Western, I've been thrown into a classroom for a full day once a week (which may seem like nothing, but it's crazy how much work is involved in being a student and a student teacher at the same time), I'm being given tips and rules and guidelines from every direction that I'm supposed to turn into some comprehensible set of information that I can apply to my career. This was all fine and dandy (although a little overwhelming) until it hit me that in a couple years (as in less than 5, if things go according to plan), I will be responsible for doing this all on my own. I'll have my own students that I'm responsible for. I'm so used to being told what to do that this is just crazy. What if I mess up? Or the students don't like me? Or I have issues with the parents? Or any other possible thing that could go wrong??? Why would anyone trust me, of all people, to educate their child? 

Then I made myself take a deep breath and remember that I'm still just starting out, and I will get lots of practice. But still, it's crazy to think that I'm not going to be a student forever!

Also, being around kids al the time (literally, I'm in schools and I'm a nanny) makes me miss these kids (who are growing up way too fast for my liking, especially since I'm not constantly around them). 

In other news, I got my quarterly room rearrangement out of the way last weekend! I get bored leaving my furniture in the same place for too long, so when Elizabeth is gone for the weekend I tend to get creative... luckily she's cool with it. Or pretends to be at least. Haha. 

My bed is now against a wall instead of in front of the windows, which makes our room so much brighter! Especially with the sun coming out more often. Also, I managed to fit both my desk and dresser under my bed, so There is more floor space. :)

Beyond that, life has been pretty normal. Busy, but nothing exciting to report. 

Theresa and I have managed to resume our Saturdays at Wood's (a coffee place downtown). Coffee and chocolate keep me awake enough to get some studying and homework done!

I recently figured out (as I was procrastinating....) that the reflection in my electric kettle makes for some cool photos. :P

My boyfriend, Niles, got me flowers for Easter :) We'll have been dating 2 months on Tuesday.

Theresa and I have been making a bucket list for this quarter, and one of the things we really want to do is go into Seattle :) She's never been, so we'll get to do all the touristy things!

Last weekend Theresa, Paulina and I decided to venture out into the world on Saturday night. 

These are our "futuristic" faces.... ? Hahaha.

Sooo that's about it lately. 

I've been crazy busy with work, class, and homework. And I try to have a social life occasionally :)

Oh! And I recently found out that the apartment my friend Paulina and I want to move in to for next year might be opening up at the end of May, meaning we'd be here over the summer. A little different than what I'd been planning, but I'd be able to continue with nannying and hopefully get another job to save up for next year. It's a lot to take in at the moment, but it's also exciting!

I'll leave you with a random fact about me: 

I actually like watching sports. It took me awhile to realize it, but they're pretty fun. 

I also like looking at old cars because they're neat. 

:)

8 more weeks

...until I'm done with my first year at Western!

People always tell me that the older you get, the faster time goes. I'm going to have to say I believe it, because it doesn't seem that long ago that I was moving in. 

I haven't posted in forever (literally a month) so here's to making up for lost time!

I got through finals alive, did pretty well overall, and had a very low-key break (which I probably needed). I spent lots of time with my family, headed up to Auburn for a couple days and got to see friends, and did senior pictures for a guy from my high school. 

My family and I spend some time in downtown Portland eating at the food trucks :)

My lunch

We're obviously not used to the sun :P

Yum yum!

My dad and I completed this 550 piece puzzle. We couldn't give up once we started. 

My dad took me out to lunch and we continued to explore all the ethnic food in the world. 

Buy one, get one for 99 cents? Couldn't pass it up :)

Here are a couple of the photos I did for my friend, Tyler.

It rained and was FREEZING, but he was a good sport :)

I miss taking photos, and I definitely missed my camera!

(I accidentally left it at home for almost a month. It was horrible!)

These trees are awful for my allergies, but they're so pretty!

I obviously had too much time by myself. 

So I have lots of pictures like these....... :)

I also got the chance, courtesy of my wonderful mom and the SLP (speech-language pathologist) at her school, to job shadow during the week I was home! It was a really great opportunity to see what a typical day in the life of an elementary speech pathologist is like, and to assess my level of interest once I had that information. Luckily, it's everything I was expecting and more, so I'm going to keep heading down the path I'm on. :)

So at the conclusion of spring break, I headed back up to WWU. The day before the quarter started (last week), I had education program meetings alllllll day. It was very time-consuming, but orientations are important I guess. And they were mandatory :P 

This quarter I'm taking intro to teaching (so far very interesting, and it will for sure keep me busy!), lifespan development (also very intriguing, prepare to hear more about that one for sure), and Spanish. Only 15 credits, but they make for a crazy schedule!

Yellow - homework, orange and pink = tests and major assignments.

Blue = my one day off.

I hope you feel adequately updated on my life, if that was your goal when you started reading this!

I'll leave you with my interesting thought of the day: have you ever thought about how genuinely amazing the process of learning to speak is? Almost everyone in the world learns to do it, and it's expected, but the process itself is completely mind-blowing. The amount of memory and recall ability required, the speech patterns, voice inflictions, sounds, articulations, etc. involved... it is incredible that children can achieve all that, and not with "proper" teaching, but through imitation and practice alone. As my friend Sarah said, no wonder children need naps! Their little heads need time to recuperate :)