Thursday, April 16, 2009

End of Senior Year...

Senior send-off is tomorrow. Our senior send-off. What the heck... where has all the time gone?! I remember last year, and the years before that, planning senior send-off and Pie in the Face. And now it's our turn. What?! I don't feel like a senior... how can I be a senior already? Even though I've technically been "done" for a while now... it still feels really strange.

I already started packing up my room. I'm still going to be living in my apartment during the summer, since that's when my program starts, but since we're subletting our apartment to three other girls, I have to pack up at least most of my stuff. Feels kind of sad, as always, but that's life, right?

I haven't thought about grad school all that much until these past couple days. It'll be really different - I hear the classes are more intense, and that the ELMAC program is especially intense, with half of the time in class and half of the time doing student teaching. I wonder if I'm ready - but even if I'm not, I'll have to be ready soon, right? Just seems kind of surreal - I've worked for the past three years to get to this point, and now I'm finally here. Crazy! God has been good to me. :)

Next year in itself will be weird, because some of my close friends will not be on campus anymore. It'll be sad not to be able to talk to them or see them often, but that's a part of life too, right? I remember coming to Michigan and sorely missing my friends from home. But after four years, I've survived, and made new friends. I catch up with my girls from home whenever I go back and we talk every so often. The friendships from high school are still there, but the close ones are few (and you guys know who you are!). Many of those friendships have become... distant, and more like acquaintances. I hope it doesn't happen to these friendships in college, but inevitably, it will to some.

I've been reading a lot of good books to get a perspective on what next year and my first official year of teaching will be like. Now, I know it'll be different, because everyone's experience is different, but I read this quote that I really liked yesterday:

(This woman originally wanted to go to medical school and ended up teaching for 35 years)
"I never did become a pediatrician, but I became a healer, a healer of children - I became a teacher."

Wow. That was so beautiful, and it really touched me. As teachers, we have the responsibility to guide and nurture young (or older) children, and the impact you could potentially have is just mind-boggling. I'm excited!!

(sorry, this post was filled with a lot of tangents and random thoughts)

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