Excuses and a Recap: a post about my experiences over the last year in getting my credential

If you're looking at my blog (which you are), you'll know that I haven't posted in a long, long time. Life gets very busy and then you put things on the back burner. Then you tell yourself that you'll do it later. Then a year goes by and you figure no one is looking at it. And then someone tells you: "I really liked looking at your blog, especially the things you made." Then you think: "Dangit!" because you should have posted those things for your  family admiring fans to look at.

Enough with excuses, here's the real deal:

(A recap)
I started and finished my credential program. What what!

I worked at some sucky jobs. No, really. Like- really, really not good jobs that make you feel sad and not-good and you start to lose hope. Like bad. Not all.of them, but after bouncing around a few jobs I finally realized that I wanted, and needed, to get into a real career that I felt passionately about. While I still love art and designing, I realized that it wasn't going to be a career for me in San Diego- at least not right now. I need to be realistic and know that I am one of those people that have a lot of interests and can be happy doing lots of different things. I just needed to hone in on one of those things and figure out how to make that happen.

I have been working in special education on and off for the past few years and after having gone back to working at it at the middle school level I realized that's what I needed to do. I was actually substituting one day at a nearby high school when a special education teacher asked if I could sub for her in the future, but I didn't have the right credentials/qualifications to do so. Her response was to get my credential. She told me that it's obvious that I like what I'm doing and that I needed to step it up and just become a credentialed teacher. Do it. That was basically the gist of it. I thought on it for a while and then when I became a special education assistant at a middle school I realized she was right. I did need to get my credential.

I was lucky and got accepted to San Diego State University for the upcoming year and to start their prerequisites in the summer. If you aren't familiar with California's teaching requirements, just know that they are very. . . thorough. There are a lot of hoops to jump through. Unlike other states where the teacher licensing is embedded in your bachelors (e.g., you get an English Teaching Bachelor's Degree), in California you have to do an extra "credential" to be certified a teacher, plus more classes within 5 years. Yeah, it's wild.

I will admit that it was tough at first. I graduated from BYU-Hawaii in summer 2010 and was going back to school in May 2013. If you have ever taken a break from college then you'll know that after working for a while it feels weird getting back into student mode. But at that point I was excited and on my way to starting a career that I feel passionately about.

That's when the busy set in again. I was doing my practicum hours- minimum 20 hours of in classroom experience, not student teaching, and taking 21 credits in the fall. Then in the spring I began my student teaching which was. All. Day. Every day. And. Classes. At. Night. It was rough. But I was back at the middle school, working with great teachers and students and it was basically the jam. I was working with a lot of students in general and special education, creating lessons, co-teaching, and creating and administering assessments, as well as running and IEP meeting. It was excellent and I really learned what I needed to from an amazing Master Teacher. Did I mention it was crazy, but good?

That just about bring us up to speed. I graduated in May 2014 with my Level 1 Education Specialist Teaching Credential in Mild/Moderate disabilities. As an hooray for finishing and also celebrating our 5 year anniversary (WHAT?!?!? how did that happen???) Chris and I went to Italy (more to come later), I've had a little too much relaxation time this summer, and then we moved. But I want to get back into updating my blog and keepin it real.

All I can really say is that the last year has been full of lots of changes for me and Chris. Having faith that it will work out, fulfilling my duties at church to work with the young women, and just all around trying to have a good attitude have definitely helped.

But what can I say besides life is good.