So I’m officially a teacher… in my eyes. I will have my first day of a “start in August” school-year, beginning tomorrow. Do I have rules for my class typed up? Nope! Do I have a syllabus typed up? Nope! Do I have anything what-so-ever that I promised typed up? Nope! But there’s plenty of hope left!
See, since I live here, these things are tiny insignificant details in the teaching world. I have unlimited access to the copying machine, YES! I live where I work, so 3 am is not abnormal for a start of the day!
One might ask his/herself, what has Amy been doing that has kept her from completing these important rites of passage into the teaching world… Well, for one, I’ve been breathing, sleeping, and reading. I know, to you it may sound lazy, but to me it’s enjoying my last bit of summer before the REAL fun begins! I’m quite proud of my summer reading list:
- Handle With Care
- Sideways
- Nineteen Minutes
- Picture Perfect
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
- Same Kind of Different As Me
- Tomcat in Love
And while I wish there were 2 more, because I like evenly rounded numbers, I still look at that list and stand in awe of all I’ve accomplished reading this summer. But like I said, school starts tomorrow, and with it means weekly lesson plans for 7 different classes… YUP seven! I was one of the lucky teachers chosen to be a 5th-8th grade teacher. I will still be teaching Science in Laredo at Mary Help; I am BEYOND excited! Because even though those things which I promised have yet to materialize on my beautiful new Macbook… they’re in MY head, and will be instituted by ME, ALL YEAR LONG!! There’s a bit of excitement with being able to be the teach from August-May; I set the rules from the beginning.
Other EXCITING news is I’m back in formation! w00t! I will be taking classes 5 nights a week (hence the sleeping and breathing exercises…) from 7:45pm-9:15pm Monday through Friday. Now, these are pre-aspirant classes, which I am a bit bummed about, but they are classes none-the-less which means, formal formation continues, which means, if all goes well, GOD-WILLING I can petition for Postulancy sooner. If these classes fail to attain my much coveted position of Postulancy, I will reapply for the aspirantate after the completion of my time in Laredo. I will not set a date for completion in Laredo… this is my goal for the year, to not put time limits on God’s Will. I hope I can keep my goal. I will however evaluate myself and my year (together with my formator and provincial) in the Spring of 2010, but for now it’s classes I’m taking towards formation and classes I’ll be giving towards the betterment of the science academia of my wonderful students.
If I’ve lost you with all the names of my journey, here’s a clue. They’re just fancy nicknames for “nun-in-training.” Except Formator–she’s the one teaching my classes–and Provincial–she’s the one in charge of our province (think of it as the AL West, or NFC East or any other division or region that includes Texas, California, Arizona, and Colorado… and Louisiana, but she’s a tricky one because she’s part of both provinces) Louisiana is the Los Angeles of the Salesian sisters. 
If you don’t know I mean, just look at the two LA baseball teams.
This summer I spent at camp. It was great! I had loads of fun… minus the hospital run! I swear, I’ve been the hospital more times in the past six months than I have in the past 10 years! It’s amazing to me! Coming back from camp, I find myself singing camp songs. Earlier today I was dancing the Flamenco dance we learned; I lost track of what day it was because I didn’t have the nightly reminders of camp fires, talent shows, movie nights, bbq’s, party nights, and scavenger hunts. I’m still in la-la land over the weather. I optimistically keep my jacket on the back of my chair hoping one to wear it again… WHEN WILL THE 100 DEGREE WEATHER CHANGE?! Darn that Laredo heat, I didn’t know hot until NOW. Camp really was an amazing experience that I loved quite a bit.
I recently went home for a short, and I mean SHORT visit. I realized how much I enjoy my brothers… we had a great time at my Tia and Tio’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. I’ve become sentimental over family pictures, everywhere we go, “PLEASE, let’s take a family photo, we don’t have any of us!” Followed by, “just mom and dad; wait, just the boys; wait just the kids… wait” and then someone inevitably walking away not wanting anymore pictures. I really miss my brothers, but it’s mostly because we’ve spent the better part of the past five years scattered all over the US and we’re all finally settling down; it’s great to hang with them!
I started another list that deal with convent life… I find them funny, but we’ll see…
Reasons for joy in the Convent:
- Surfing the channels for a non-reality show is no longer a problem
- Being hit on by anyone is easily fought off by, “I’m engaged to Jesus.”
- Have tan lines? No problem! You’re always in”habited.”
- Bad Haircuts are covered by a veil
- No longer a need to have a “swimsuit” body during swimsuit season!
- Your outfit ALWAYS matches!
- Broken mirrors are bad luck, right? Well, there aren’t many mirrors around for you to break!
There are others, but they’ve been censored by the internet police!
I look forward to this year, it’ll be a great one! Now if only I could re-train myself for 4:45am wake up calls… I succeeded 5/5 days last week. (Weekends don’t count!, plus we get to sleep an EXTRA TWO HOURS!, but I usually forgo any waking up to catch up on my lack of weekly sleep). Here’s to the new year! and Finished lesson plans for the next three weeks!
