My 6 Faces

This last week, my kiddos has the coolest writing assignment. Their job was to take 5 pictures and use them as a catalyst to write about their life during the times when those pictures were taken. I thought I'd share mine.  

My Life in 6 Faces (Since I couldn’t narrow it down)

                Well, aren’t I just so cute? Seriously, though, that is one cute picture. This is me at a week and a half shy of 2 years old. It’s Halloween and I’m all dressed up for the occasion. This basically meant bunny ears, a cotton ball pinned to the bum of my pink footie pajamas, and my mom’s lipstick and eyeliner painting my face. I got a bag of candy from my relatives who came trick-or-treating to me (when you’re not quite 2, you get candy no matter what because “you’re just so sweet!) and, apparently, I was pumped about that. I mean, look at the way I’m snuggling that bag! The story goes that, once I’d scored all my loot, I took my bag of candy over to the blanket where my sister was cooing. She was a mere 5 months old, but I wanted to make sure that she enjoyed this new holiday where you got candy aplenty, too. My mom says I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get her to reach into the bag and pick a piece of candy. I guess I didn’t realize she was too bitty for this to happen. But I wanted to share, which is saying a lot for a little kid, especially if that sharing involves candy. To this day, I still love my candy and I take any chance I can get to dress up for any occasion. This picture was only a shadow of things to come…

                This is me at seven. Check out the bangs! Check out the pattern on that dress! Check out those shoulder pads! I was looking pretty great, if I may say so myself. Life was good. I had 3 siblings (Lindsey was yet to enter the scene), I was in dance lessons, I was a pro at playing catcher for my t-ball team, and I loved the children’s choir my mom had signed me up for. My favorite activities were jumping on the trampoline with my best friends, Becky and Heather, riding bikes, swimming, and coloring. I even won a short story writing competition at my school and got to go to the local university to meet other kid authors and professional authors. Life was pretty great back then. I was old enough to earn my own allowance for doing things like cleaning my room and putting my dishes in the sink. My sister Amber and I got to move from our room upstairs to a room downstairs. We were the only ones not upstairs, which made us really grown up. I even had my own alarm clock. I was rockin’ the second grade and felt really mature and amazing. Well, that was pretty much true – what can I say?

                Oh, college! When you go to a private university run by a religious institution that is known to be the number one most stone-cold sober school in the nation, you have amazingly hilariously good times. Our good times in college included things like sledding down the hill on lunch trays, burning our notes in the park, guacamole and potato gun fights, and, of course, dressing up as Harry Potter characters for both Halloween and the latest movie premier. My frizzy hair and my insistence upon always reading a book made me a perfect Hermione. And, because we all had computers of our own (a novelty at the time), we had learned how to use Photoshop and made ourselves into a movie poster. I mean, why not? College was a time when I struggled to find out who I was outside of my family, but where I grew to become an independent woman who could handle heartbreak, loss, and life. Don’t get me wrong – we had a rockin’ good time, but there were some moments I’d just as soon forget. I loved my college experience. Go Mighty Cougars!

                I probably should put in a picture of that one time that Deg and I got married. I mean, that was a pretty big deal. Behind us, you’ll see the building where we got married. (In case you wanted to know, it’s the Idaho Falls Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) We dated for a year before getting engaged, and at the time, this seemed like forever. I can’t tell you the amount of times my dad called me and told me to tell Deg to, and I quote, “Crap or get off the pot!” Now, however, it’s obvious that we were still just getting to know each other. We’ve been together for 5 years now, and boy, has it been interesting. From figuring out that I had anxiety (that was a ridiculously painful journey), to learning how to handle in-laws, to getting Deg graduated from college, to moving to Indiana and starting our “real lives,” we’ve been through a lot. And we know that we’ve got a long ways to go yet. The best part is that I get to do it all with my best friend (awww!) and that I will always have a partner in crime. I mean, as long as there is a can of Mountain Dew around to fuel his crazy computer skills with!

                This picture, though blurry, is one of my favorites. This was taken on my last day teaching in Utah at Navigator Pointe Academy. That lovely standing behind me is Shelby. (Notice her uniform? Aren’t you glad that you don’t have to wear those?) I had such a great time working there because the kiddos were so awesome. We had so much fun delving into Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, George Orwell, Jules Verne, and the likes. We laughed our faces off, wrote until our fingers hurt, and froze our tushies off. Did I mention that the heater never quite worked and that my classroom was usually somewhere around 63 degrees? Did you notice the blanket I’m sporting? The three years I spent there were amazing and I grew not only as a teacher but as a human being. There’s nothing quite as rewarding as having someone tell you that you’ve helped guide them to the realization that they can achieve their goals, and that’s exactly what we did. We went from not quite knowing how to paragraph to writing 7 page papers analyzing the symbolism in a novel in the course of a year. We got to know each other as people, too – some of them still text me on my birthday each year, and many of them have sent me cards announcing their graduations this year. PS – they’re graduating!?! Stop that! Not everyone can be in a job they love or find rewarding, but I loved what I was doing there and was so sad to leave my cuties in Utah.

                This is our Iron Chef Typhoon competition, and the most recent picture of myself I had available at the moment. (You'll also notice the gregarious Grayson and the hegemonic Hannegan.) Have we had fun this year or what? And, boy has it been a journey. I’ve struggled and fought and learned and grown as I’ve become a “Montessori-ite.” I know I still have a long way to go. But being here and being in the space with you all has helped me to have the courage to go for some of my silly dreams. I won a chili cook off and tried my hand at quilting because I see you all achieve new, hard, amazing things every day. So go you guys for being my inspiration. Seriously, my friends know you all as “my kiddos.” As I look to the future, I don’t know what it will hold, but I do know that I’ll be able to do more with it now because I have had the chance to get to work and learn with you all.