Guinness Anyone?

I've waited 28 years for this to happen. Not that I anticipated it with joy. In fact, I thought I was in the clear! I have never been offered alcohol before---until this past week! I made it through high school and college with no such invitations; it took a gutzy 16 year old to do it! I was invited by one of my students to sneak into senior fling with him---he promised he would be bringing a keg of beer. I was so shocked by his overture! I knew just about anything I said would be incriminating, so I simply replied: "I don't drink, and I'm not a senior," and then walked away. Sadly his friends laughed at him, and I have been on silent treatment for a while. Gutzy kid. Odd, experience! But, hey, all those years of Beehives, Miamaids, and Laurels paid off huh? Peer pressure *psha*. I would make my young women's leaders proud. ;)

Since You've Been Gone

Or, since I've been gone....I just thought you might like to see a little bit of what I have been doing in my lack of blogging time. Looks fun doesn't it?! I LOVE it.







I especially like to do things that take my students out of their comfort zone: performing mini-plays, reading papers and poems outloud, peer-editing. However, we also have a dang-awesome amount of fun in my class too!

Waxing Philosophical

One of the things I like about teaching is how hopeful and optimistic the young dreamers are. I have a particular student named Jeff who wants to know anything and everything about my life. He sits right behind my desk and if I am ever over there entering grades or what not he asks me questions. A few days ago he wanted to know if teaching had always been my dream. I said no, it wasn't. He asked what I had always wanted to be. I went through the laundry list. I first wanted to be an author, then an artist, then a dental hygenist, then a broacaster, and now a teacher. He proceeded to ask me a million questions about why I didn't pursue this, why I didn't do that. He wanted to know why if I had played sports in high school I didn't try to play in college. I said, well, I knew I wasn't "that good," and he was so funny, he said you should have just tried. He asked why I didn't pursue broadcasting and I said I anchored ect., at BYU but decided it wasn't what I wanted to go pursue, and he was just so cute about it. He told me he wanted to be a sports anchor and play soccer in college, maybe at BYU like his older brother.

Okay, this sounds like a fairly uneventful conversation and it was, but he is such a beautiful dreamer, and it just struck me when he said, "but you should try anyway." I am stuck by these teenagers who try out for dance teams and sports teams and student government and try for that unattainable guy or girl and they try, try, try, even if they fail, they try. It reminds me of my graudation ceremony last week when the speak, (a CEO of Dell, formerly of Orem, UT), quoted the typically, oft quoted lines about how if you never try anything, you will neither fail nor succeed, and thus will live a safe, but boring life. This same day my dad was reminiscing about his mission and said his mission pres. (a millionare, invented the tater tot), used to say, "Bite off more than you can chew, and then chew it!"

I just love the viatlity of the human spirit. What dreams do I need to be dreaming today? And how can I go about pursuing them? There is a lot to be said about being an adult, but there is likewise a lot to be said about remaining a dreamer.