New Year

Happy New Year!  Ok so I’m a little late.  Oh well.  It’s a month into 2014 this year and I don’t know about where you are, but at my office and my church we’ve been talking a lot about gratitude and happiness.  I started this blog as a type of gratitude journal and have just been awful at keeping up with it.  Well I decided to make a change about that and be more vocal about the things I appreciate and am thankful for in my life.  For encouragement, I bought a Kindle e-book/journal with gratitude writing prompts.  It is called <i>JOURNAL: 365+ writing prompts, ideas and quotes to cultivate joy and well-being</i> by Judy Shafarman.  I bought it because I loved the quotes and prompts and it was only $5 (I’m not going to lie, I’m cheap).

So the first prompt is:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones that you did do. – Mark Twain

A dream of mine is to…

 

A dream of mine is to change the world of teaching.  I would love the chance to try out some of the new methods and research I have learned on trauma and toxic stress in a classroom setting.  If only I had known what I knew now back when I was actually teaching I could have had a lot more of an impact on those kids.  I’ve considered putting together a presentation and taking it to teaching conferences, but fear grips me on being ridiculed by people who have been in the field longer than I have.  I know it is both a rational and irrational fear, as everyone must make that first leap at some point.  I have never had a better safety net than I do now so I may as well just take that leap.

So perhaps a new goal of mine is to step forward and tell people that I have an idea on how to reach the unreachable in the classroom.  Maybe I can change one person’s world to help them reach just one child.

Thus, I am thankful for the experiences I have had in my life to give me this knowledge and the safety net that my friends and colleagues have given me to help me be confident (one day soon) in such a heart-heavy presentation.

 

Opportunities

Today I am most thankful for the many opportunities that God has given me.  Even though some of them may not be what I think I want, they are plentiful and all beneficial.  I finished my Masters degree in May of this year and was hoping to leave my current job and moving into a teaching position in a community college somewhere in the country.  I was not particular about the location.  However, despite the numerous resumes and wonderful letters of recommendations from my professors, I did not even receive one call back.  Thus, I started applying for high school and middle school teaching positions with several call backs but no hires.  When I asked my current office if they would be willing to keep me on, they were overjoyed and offered to move my position up in rank and salary.

Likewise, my extracurricular activity opportunities are plentiful.  I restarted up an old social group to help people in my area with the spiritual afterlife to a huge success.  The discipleship pastor and youth director also asked me to take over a position with the middle school youth group.  I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to go back to school this fall for free to earn a certificate in online education.  What wonderful opportunities and connections I have been given to make all of these happen together.  Just a few weeks ago I was feeling lonely and bored and now, looking back on all I have promised and been given, I don’t think I can ever be either again- at least not for another year!

What are you thankful for today?