Almost Done!

I have one more paper to write for school, for my last class (until I start student teaching), then I'm done. Done!

Yes, I'm avoiding, but then I'm also "warming up" by writing a little in my blog... Yeah, that's what I'm telling myself.

So for an FYI I'm just going to explain what I've been doing because in addition to wifing Superman and mothering Sunshine, Princess, Snap, Crackle and Pop, I'm also going to school. I am trying to become a teacher, an English teacher specifically.

Yes I know the teaching profession is a thankless job, especially for secondary educators but I love it! I love reading and writing and I want to share that love. When I go to "Back to School" night for my kids and thumb through their textbooks I get excited. From 7th-12th grade English, I get excited.

Yeah, I'm weird. It's okay. Since there are a ton of English teachers out there I have to assume I am not completely alone in my weirdness. LOL

I left high school in 1983. I did not graduate but took my G.E.D. There were a number of reasons I was not able to graduate with my class and I regret the choices I made in high school but things have worked out and now it's okay.

I tried to go to the local community college but I was so tired of school that I ended up withdrawing from all my classes (and yes, the Ws have followed me ever since). A friend was going to the LDS Business college in Salt Lake City, UT (she was a year behind me) and I started out in 1984 going to school in earnest.

I did very well at the LDS Business College, but I had a goal. I wanted to get into Brigham Young University and go on Study Abroad in London. I did those things. I transferred to BYU in the summer of 1985 and went on Study Abroad London in January of 1986 for six months. It was the best time of my life! I talk about that experience here.

After Study Abroad I took time off from school to go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was called to serve in Japan, Kobe mission for 18 months. That was a unique and amazing experience, but definitely different then my time in London!

When I returned from my mission I floundered a bit. I did not have anymore goals. I met with a counselor at BYU and told him I wanted to be a writer but I also wanted to be independent (i.e.; a wage-earner) even with my goal of being a wife and mother. He discouraged me from my goals and basically shrugged at what I could possibly do. 

During the years I vacillated on what I wanted to do between medicine, teaching and English. I was pre-med for a couple of semesters (thus my medical terminology, anatomy & physiology classes), an Elementary Education major, then after Study Abroad I was a History major, then finally I settled on English. I decided, finally, that I wanted to study English even if it wasn't lucrative. It was what I truly loved.

When I got married in 1991 I stopped going to school. I took a few classes after Sunshine was born and finished up my AA so I would have something to show for all the years of schooling. I really Really wanted to finish my BA and took classes on and off in between the years of having kids but it got to be too much. I was even in a cool program with the school district (when I was working as an aide) where they paid for my schooling to become a teacher. At that time I had to change my major to Liberal Studies and I was working toward becoming an Elementary teacher (again) with a Multi-Subject Credential.

But then I got pregnant with Pop and had to drop out. I was too sick to go to school and too sick to even work.

I did go back to work for the school district when Pop was about six months old on a part-time/temporary basis. Then I started back at school--again--this time as an English major & I got a Substitute Teaching Credential and worked as a Sub for a couple of years. After that experience I wasn't sure I ever wanted to teach. At. All. Ever.

I still continued to take classes through the school I am still with today, National University, until the money source went dry and I had to quit again.

When Sunshine was graduating from high school and getting ready to go to college I was filling out the FAFSA for her I discovered that I could get more money for college than her! So I went back.
All my classes have been online. I take one class a month. I have been gung-hoing it for the last two years to finish both my BA and get a Secondary Education Credential. The Teacher Education (TED) classes have been difficult but worthwhile. I also had to take 4 CSET tests and I passed all of them!

I thought I was going to graduate this last May but it turns out I have to do my Student Teaching, which I won't be ready for until September (and the deadline is June) so I won't be able to do it until next year, February 2014, so I will be able to graduate, with my BA and Secondary Ed Credential, next May, 2014!

Booyah!

It only took me 31 years.
And... I'm planning on getting my Masters... and maybe a PhD. I want to teach college.