Senior Year Blog - archived

I had my first big girl interview, yesterday morning! I know! It was so exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. All week I kept telling myself not to worry about it. My wonderful mother told me to just pray and leave it in God's hands. Sometimes I find that hard to do. I did obey my mother, though. I prayed, asked for prayer, and walked into that interview as myself. Usually, I try and rehearse my responses. I decided to rely on my natural personality and instinct. For the first time, I was fully confident.

                I knew that I had been prepared all this time, through past experiences and educational classes. I just had to believe that I could SHOW that I was prepared. Last weekend, I bought my first big girl pants suit.  I was so excited.  So, yesterday morning I woke up, put on my new suit, grabbed my sleek portfolio with my resume inside, and headed out into the world. Cheesy, I know.

                I also thought about how bittersweet this moment was. Think about it.....On my first day of Kindergarten, my parents were there. When I went off to college, my parents were there.  But, I had to see myself off for this interview. I don't know if it is much fun growing up. I miss having my parents physically present to support me. I have to remind myself that it is just a part of growing up.

                This was a great opportunity. Whatever happens, I'm glad that I was given this chance. I feel good knowing that I have accomplished something like this. Now, I'm just waiting on the verdict. Man! This is worse than preparing for the interview. These next few days are going to go by slower than I would like. Patience is a virtue!

 Yay, another tradition! I bet you didn't see this one coming. Well, every year we have an early morning Halloween run. This event involves Judson girls, usually freshman, waking up at about 6:00 in the morning to wait for the MMI cadets. Yeah you heard me right. We Judson girls get up early to watch over 100 boys run down our street. Oh the sights you see!

            It really is interesting. The guys dress up in Halloween costumes of all kinds. I can remember looking at a lot of them, last year, and thinking..."Whoa!" (not in a good way) Anyway, so we stand outside along the street patiently waiting with WATER BALLOONS! That is what makes it fun. A lot of girls stay up late the night before, just to get all of their balloons filled. They put a lot of time and effort into this tradition. Then, we bust them on all of the guys!

            So, this morning was the day for the Halloween run. About 50 Judson girls arose for this occasion at 5:45 this morning. At first, my roommate and I weren't going to go, but we decided we better since it would be our last time. We woke up, put on shoes, popped a piece of gum in our mouths (lol!), I got my camera, and we headed across campus. Notice that I said ACROSS CAMPUS. I took my camera, because I wanted to share some pictures with you on this blog.

            We get there and wait....6:00 comes around, still no guys. 6:05 comes around, still no guys. We all start wondering where they are. Then, 6:15 rolls around and we start to hear them approaching our campus with their marching and singing/chanting. We watch them circle our campus and wait on them to come down the road in front of us. They don't come! The security guard comes around to tell us that..............THEY ARE GOING BACK TO THEIR CAMPUS!

"What! Are you serious?!" (everyone said this) We couldn't believe that we woke up to be stood up! Oh well. The moral of this story is that you can't always trust a pack of guys. J I hope you enjoy the 1 picture that I took. Sorry!

My 4^th grade students are quite hilarious. They have so much more personality than the Kindergarteners, or should I say very different personalities. Sometimes I have to get on to them for their behavior towards each other. They are at the age where they are all trying to find where they belong. Most of them are insecure in some way and they try to hide it by making fun of their classmates; making their peers laugh. There are occasions when they think they are funny without trying to be, like yesterday.

            Some of my 4^th grade students have had trouble with quick multiplication. They can't remember their multiplication tables; they have to use their fingers. In order to help them, I found some multiplication math games. One of the games involves a stack of playing cards. I had some students competing with each other to see who could multiply the numbers on the card that they both turned over, the fastest. These students were getting so excited while practicing their multiplication. I love teaching!

            Some of my groups weren't even. So, I had the extra student play the same game, but by him/her self. I instructed that student to make two stacks of the same number of cards, in front of them. They were to use each hand to turn over one card from each stack, at the same time. One of my students was playing by himself, when he suddenly became disturbed. I said "(name) what is wrong?" He responded "*Huff!* I think my left hand is beating my right hand". Hahahahaha! I thought that was the funniest thing that I had heard in a long time. I gave him a minute to make sure that he was serious. When I realized that he was, I started laughing even harder! Oh, the joys of being a teacher. This is definitely my calling. J Hope you find yours!

Recently, I had a prospective ask me about the things we do for fun at Judson. Immediately I found myself talking about our many traditions. Here at Judson we are built on our sisterhood and traditions.  Our traditions set us apart from all the other colleges, especially the secret ones. (Want to know a secret? Shhhhh....come closer.....Shhhhh....SIKE!) Sorry, it's the Halloween trickster coming out. Anyway, we also have traditions that aren't secretive; like HOCKEY! Field hockey comes around at this time every year. We usually start practicing around the second week of October. Then, hockey day is actually the first weekend in November.

            It really is a lot of fun. It is suppose to a time for each class to work together for victory over the other one. Oh, and the Alumni come back to try and show that they still have it, by playing the All-Stars. As you can imagine, it can get a little rough. I mean...come on! There are a lot of girls running around a huge field with huge wooden sticks. Notice that I said GIRLS. (enough said) Needless to say, we are very competitive most of the time. Other times we laugh it off and keep going. I can say that things go back to normal once we exit the field. Nobody gets hurt on purpose. :/

            I get really excited when it's time for hockey. With all that I have going on academically; it is my one way to cater to my athletic side. The intramural sports give those of us who don't choose to or can't play a collegiate sport to still be athletic and competitive. Our theme for this year is: "You've gotta fight for right to play hockey". I think that the theme really sums up the intensity of the sport. We all love it and we all have fun!