Better Late than Never

Ok, so its been since last year that I last posted. I was going to post at the end of 2006 in place of a Christmas letter, since I can never get those out, but clearly that didn't happen either. So instead, another milestone event has prompted me to post: my one year anniversary of working as a teacher. That's right, one year ago yesterday I started at Kirkland JH. One year ago right now I was freaking out asking myself "what did you get yourself into?" and thinking I just signed my death sentence. But this was only one of the many changes that so clearly marked 2006 for me. Allow me to recap...

My year of changes actually began at the close of 2005 when my dad proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas morning, which was a complete surprise to all present except him. Shortly after that I began para-educator subbing at Skyview (the school where I student taught) to make some money while I finished the last quarter of my masters program. This led to my next major change...

...in the period of one week, I went from application to job offer to starting teaching. Literally. One Monday I filled out the online application, the following Monday I was teaching full time. Crazy, I know. This in and of itself was a major change that took months to adjust to, but while this was going on...

...my mom started dating a guy from our church. This was crazy, since my mom hasn't dated once since she divorced my dad. I'd never seen her with anyone else and I'd never seen the side of her that got so excited from having someone interested in her. But flipping back to the paternal side...

...my dad got married in June, which was crazy, since I was still teaching and had to take a "family weekend" for this wedding I wasn't really crazy about in the first place. It happend, I didn't die, so what more can I ask for? Meanwhile, my life at church was changing about the same time...

...after almost six years of volunteer youth ministry with the junior high group, I called it quits on the sunday before promotion sunday. I had known the day was coming, but it was crazy that it acually happened. I just couldn't teach junior high students all week and then hang out with them on the weekend as well. I didn't have the energy or the patience. It also freed me up to...

...start attending an adult sunday school class at church called crosswalk. For the first time since shortlly after high school, I was attending a class that was geared towards my age group, and I didn't have any responsibilities to keep it going. Of course, in the background to all this, I was in the process of also changing...

...my living situation. Sometime in May I started condo-hunting. It took a while, but I thought I had found a place that'd work. I went to Cali for my friend Wes' wedding and came back expecting to have a new place to live. Instead, I ran into more problems, delays, and ended up backing out of the deal...

...only to find another place, make an offer, and close on the property in 2 weeks! By now its the end of July, and the very weekend I move in...

...I end up going with the high school group from church to JH Ranch in northern Cali for a week long camp. While I'm there, I realized I really miss being a part of ministry and start thinking about finding a way to join some form of youth staff again. By now its time...

...to start my first full year of teaching, crazy though it may be. But lest you think the changes were over, two days before school's supposed to start, the other, senior 9th grade science teacher accepts a job in another district and is replaced by another 1st year teacher, making me the senior 9th grade science teacher (senior only because I had a whopping half year more experience than the other guy). This change also brought the addition of school responsibilities, such as...

...technology guy, ACTIVboard trainer, and my very first field trip; we took the 8th graders to the BODIES Exhibition in early November. Which is practically December, which is when...

...my mom got engaged, with a wedding planned for April of 2007. My year of change closed out with out a whole lot of upheavile. We went to Cali to visit my grandparents for Christmas. Although, in the spirit of 2006, I did make one final change...

...I bought new appliances and a new TV, updating my condo quite a bit both in look and in function.

Whew! For someone who really doesn't like change, I sure did go through alot last year. We'll see what this year holds. I've been extra retro-spective lately, what with my one year anniversery yesterday. And actually, I also hit another mile stone in about a week: I turn 25. In all honnestly, I'm more wowed by my year as a teacher than 25 years of life, but that's just me.

Things in 2007 still have the propensity for some changes, like my mom getting married in April, and my potential to get back into youth ministry sometime hopefully in the near future, but only God knows for sure what's in store for me.