The first day back to school was very exciting for my students and me. A year and a half ago we got an addition on the school. The addition was a new junior high and high school wing. It basically doubled the size of our school. It was a much needed addition, the older and younger students were always on top of each other. Anyway, we also had money available for a remodel of the elementary wing. The work for that has been going on all school year and it was finally completed after the Christmas break. We had crammed the elementary in with the older students or in out buildings. I had actually been teaching in a building separate from the main school. So every time my students had lunch or activities in the school we had to get our winter gear on and trudge outside. But not anymore, we are in the school, we have a big beautiful new classroom and a gymnasium to play it. My poor little kids have not run around for any part of the day until now. I think it’s terrible to be 5 years old and just sit all day. I think kids need to be kids and run free at times.

Since my husband and I were not out of town during the holidays, we ended up working on moving classrooms and supplies into the new school. We both put in many hours during our “holiday” so that the school would not be a disaster when the other teachers came back. Since we haven’t had time off since August, we decided to take a week off in February. I have 6 personal days available for me to use this school year so we are going to go to the desert, Tucson, Arizona. My girlfriend lives there so we’ll get to catch up with her, and I have never seen the desert so it’ll be a new experience for me. It’s also going to be warm! Yeah! I think it’ll make the rest of the cold, dark winter more bearable. How was your trip to Paris?

That’s great that you’re going out on a limb and pursuing a new career path. Too many people are afraid to take chances like that. But I say, go for it, what’s the worse that could happen? I feel like I have a great work situation. I don’t teach up here because I love it more than anything (though, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy it). But it does allow me to do things that I really am passionate about. 1) Spend a lot of time with my husband. 2) Travel. We get over 2 months off each summer and can spend that time experiencing new parts of the world and catching up with family. It’s perfect. Anyway, life is too short to just think about doing what you really love.