a steady stream of chatter

This has been a pretty great week.

Absolutely exhausting, but great. I had no idea working as a photographer's assistant would be as physical as it is. Hauling equipment to and from shoots, setting up, breaking down, running around set... I'm ready to drop the second I get home. But it's good. I'm meeting a lot of new people and making contacts left & right. Several teachers have asked me for my information so they can request me as their primary sub. :) Thank you, God.

With the yearbook sponsor and parent volunteers as Wester MS

I'm loving middle schools and their students more and more every day, and it's definitely where I want to teach. I shot my first elementary school last week, though, and my word, those kids were adorable. Pictures were taken during their P. E. classes, so often the students had fifteen to twenty minutes to kill before it was time to go back to their classrooms. One class had come directly from the library and begged me to read to them. Sitting in that gym, surrounded by second graders, reading aloud Monsters Are Everywhere, I felt as if my heart might burst. The way those kids looked at me...it made me know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm supposed to be a teacher.

Downtime at Liberty HS

I even made a new friend! One of the teachers I met last week is a first-year who went through the same alternative certification program as me. He's around my age and even lives about five miles from my house as it turns out. Matt's been really sweet to encourage me about finding a teaching job. He's giving me pointers, showing me how to make lessons plans, and going to request me as a sub for his class soon when he's absent for jury duty. I'm so excited to have a teacher friend in Grapevine! Sometimes it can be so isolating here, but meeting new people who have been where I am makes me feel like I'm not alone and that there's hope.

With fellow assistant Kimber and photographer Greg at Maus MS

God's plan almost never makes sense to me, but I think I'm finally starting to get it. I know he's placed me in this job so that I can be in schools, meet teachers, and work with kids. This just has to work out, don't you think? :)