FINALLY!!!!

This week marks the end of a very long journey, I will finish my student teaching on Friday and will graduate with a Master's Degree in Education. This journey started over 13 years ago when I initially graduated from high school with hopes of becoming a teacher. I attended a private college near the town where we lived until I could no longer afford to pay their tuition. I completed most of my general studies at that private college, when it came time to transfer to a state university I found that few if any of my credits actually transferred over, which was the universities way of saying that they wanted more of my money. Needless to say, I flunked out my third year of college because I was just tired of the bureaucracy. I wanted more in my life, I needed direction. So I left.

I really ran away to Alaska. I wanted to see the world, I wanted to have an adventure, I wanted. I was naive and I trusted people and humanity too much, and I ended up pregnant and on welfare. Ten years ago next week I gave birth to my son, Eddy and my life changed forever. I needed a good paying job with benefits and I needed to get my life back together, not only for me but for this life I had just brought into the world. I came back home. I drug my no good lousy sperm donor, two dogs, and a baby back and tried to get it in order. That lasted for about a year, when I became tired of his abuse, and I left with only the baby and the truck.

Meanwhile I had started back to college albeit one night a week, but I was a trooper I went to class faithfully every week. I moved in with my parents and they assumed child care on those nights when I had class, I had also secured a job as a personal care teacher assistant for three disabled children in a local school district. I trudged on, I worked as an aide full time during the week and on the weekends I bar tended and waitressed my way through bills and tuition. In 2002 I graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology. PSYCHOLOGY, yeah you thought I went for the teacher degree right then and there huh? Well nope, I was too proud to quit my job with full benefits and an actual income to fulfill the requirements for the teacher degree, which included quitting the said job and going back on welfare.

Well then again I found myself STUCK, I was a really good aide, but I hated my job. I hated being bossed around and found myself seeking another way out. So I started working on an associates degree in Fire Science because at that time in my life I needed more adventure and what better way to quench that need than to become a Firefighter. I broke many barriers in my pursuit of the Fire Science Degree, I was the first woman in the program to complete Fire Fighter I and II. I was the only woman in the class, and that in itself was exhilarating.

Meanwhile I joined a local fire department where I was treated as an equal and where I would later meet the Anti-Hippie. The summer after the Anti Hippie and I were married he encouraged me to get a degree that would make me happy and one that would allow me to get a job that I would be happy with. So I did, I started in the summer of 2006 and here it is a little over 2 years later and I am graduating with a degree that I am proud of and that I initially started out pursuing oh so many years ago. Well, my student teaching was one of the best things that I ever did, and I can honestly tell you I put my heart and soul into my class, my lesson plans, and my teaching. I have never worked so hard in my entire life as I have these past 4 months, and I did not even get paid for this! I am proud of myself. I am also proud of my family for supporting me over the past decade with all my career changes and wild adventures!