Last Semester, Best Semester

Well everyone, this is it. Tomorrow I leave to go back to Austin to finish up my final semester at the best university in the entire world.

If you have been reading my blog with any regularity, you know that I will be completing the student teaching portion of my degree this final semester. I will be at Westwood High School in Round Rock ISD, and I will be working with a 10th grade English class - either Pre-AP or on-level. I'm going to be very honest with you guys, the thought that I'm going to be student teaching makes me feel giddy and excited one minute, and then it makes me feel completely terrified the next. What have I gotten myself into? At the age of 21 (almost 22!), I absolutely cannot be qualified to stand up in front of a bunch of teenagers and try to instill a little bit of knowledge into their brains. The only thing I know is being a student, and now you want me to be the one teaching students of my own?

But at the same time, I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in the third grade. I have had some incredible, fantastic, wonderful, and inspiring teachers throughout my school career, and there aren't enough positive adjectives on this earth to describe them and what they have done to get me to where I am today. To think that I am going to get to join the ranks of Ms. Rosso (now Mrs. McGee), Mrs. Cate, Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Griffin, Mr. Avis, Mrs. Briggs, Mrs. Riddle, Coach Adcock, Mr. Stadler (S-T-A-D-L-E-R for all you Memorial Middle School Eagles), and so many more, makes my heart happy. I love high school kids, and I hope to not only have a positive influence over them, but to equip them to be good citizens in this crazy world that happens outside of the school setting.

This semester is going to be busy, stressful, and almost certainly a roller coaster ride full of both hills and valleys. And I love this little blog of mine, and I am so thankful for all of you who so faithfully read it. I may outwardly blush when someone tells me that they love my blog, but inwardly I'm grinning like an idiot. And while I initially thought I would take a "blog hiatus" for the semester, I just can't bring myself to do it. Writing is an outlet for me, as is exercise, so I think this blog is going to be necessary in order to keep me sane. So, my posts may not be very regular. And I probably won't hit my 10-posts-a-month goal. I might be posting in the wee hours of the morning, but I hope you all will continue to check in with me from time to time. I will do my best to keep posting workouts (and there are sure to be some fast and effective workouts taking place, as time will be of the essence) and both healthy and delicious recipes for you guys.

And all I know is that I'm glad I'm not going into this alone.

Clinging to Philippians 4:13

And with that, I'll leave you with a few quotes from my "inspiration" board on Pinterest. Hopefully you will find them as encouraging as I do.

Here's to making my last semester the best semester. And don't worry, I'll try to have a little bit of fun along the way! I'll check in with you guys tomorrow - probably from Austin. Have a great night!