A-T-L-A-N-T-A

Ok, time for a lighter post :)

Since moving to Athens, I've really enjoyed traveling into Atlanta (only about an hour or so away from Athens) and doing the tourist thing! To end off my summer, Joe and I went to Atlanta for a touristy day on Thursday.

To start off the day, we went to the World of Coca-Cola! SO MUCH FUN! We learned all about the history of Coke, watched commericals from all over the world, saw a 4-D movie (3-D video plus wind, water, and seat effects!) and even taste different coke products from a bunch of different countries. My favorite was a Melon Fanta from Africa, and my least favorite was definitely one called Beverly from Italy! Yuck! They had a machine where you could customize a Coke drink, and I mixed Vanilla Coke with Grape Fanta...it tasted pretty good! Joe mix Cherry Vanilla Coke with Orange Coke and it tasted like a fruity-smelling marker, which was actually very accurate!

Variety of Coke products from around the world

After the World of Coca-Cola, we got dinner at The Varsity. It's an Atlanta landmark and the world's largest drive-in. If you ever visit Atlanta, you MUST eat there! The food is your typical cookout food, but the history and set-up of the place makes it all worth it. It's very reasonably priced, too!

The Varsity

Our final stop on our Atlanta adventure was Turner Field for the Braves vs. Pittsburgh baseball game. That night, they were giving away Chipper Jones bobbleheads, so we made sure to get into the stadium early! We caught batting practice, and as usual when Joe and I go to a Braves game, there was a rain delay. Luckily, our seats were under a pavilion, so we waited it out and watched the rest of the game. Sadly, the Braves lost but we did get to see Chipper Jones bat on his bobblehead night.

Chipper up to bat

After our trip on Thursday, the last major Atlanta hotspot I need to hit is the Georgia Aquarium (Other places I've been to: Stone Mountain, the state capitol, and Six Flags Over Georgia)! I'll hopefully be making many more fun trips to Atlanta in the future, so if anyone is ever visiting the area, let me know and I'll try to be a tour guide for you :)

PUSH: pray until something happens

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, aka my second year of teaching! While it is just pre-planning week this week, I can't decide if I'm excited or ready or what, but it's here! It's making me nervous all over again, just like last year when I started my first year. I even woke up this morning having a bad dream about my first class going wrong!

I know that God works through everything and every one, but this morning I saw that happen once again. We sang the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (definitely a classic), and one set of the lyrics stood out:

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer

I'm not sure a truer statement could have been said to me at the this time. Why am I sitting here worrying about how the school year is going to go when I can just give it to God? God answers prayers, and lifting up this school year is the best way to save myself from forfeiting peace and causing "needless pain."

When I was in middle school, the PUSH rings/necklaces/etc. were "in." PUSH stood for Pray Until Something Happens. Maybe I need to pull my old PUSH ring out and wear it as an everyday reminder.

I pray that I will show God's love to my new group of student everyday and that I will teach all of them at least one thing throughout the year. I also pray that I will show God's love to my coworkers and work with them as a team. I pray that I will follow His will for the year and do what He is calling me to do through my teaching and other activities in my life.

If you get a second, I'd appreciate a prayer or two :)

1 is the loneliest number

Last week, I went to Emerald Isle, NC with my family for a week of sun, reading, games, and relaxation. I always love going to the beach for multiple reasons, but one of them is just watching the waves roll in while I think about many different topics. On the last day, I got to thinking about being alone.

It all started in the morning when we saw a man (probably in his 60s) sitting on the beach by himself. When I saw him I thought, "Aww, he's on the beach all alone." He had a book, but he really just seemed to enjoy sitting there looking out at the ocean. In the afternoon, I saw another younger guy sitting on the beach by himself. He didn't seem to have anything with him to do, since I just saw him sitting there looking out at the water. Again, I was thinking about why he was there all alone and wondering if he had anyone in town to go to the beach with. It made em think of Sex and the City episode where Samantha is supposed to meet the salsa club owner out at a restaurant and he stands her up. Carrie has some quote in the voiceover about Samantha not having any of her "dining alone armor" with her.

I got to thinking, though...WHY did I feel bad for these two guys sitting on the beach by themselves? Why do I feel bad for people that are at a restaurant by themselves? Or talking a walk by themselves? What is my problem with people doing things by themselves?

It could stem from my fear of ending up alone, but then I started to think, are we really ever truly alone? God is always with us, so even when another human being isn't there, I don't think we are ever alone. In fact, spending time alone on the beach would be the PERFECT way to spend time with God. It's hard to spend time with God truly alone with all the distracts at home (friends, TV, things to do at home, etc.), so maybe these "lonely" guys are on to something!

I've decided I'm going to challenge myself to do something by myself at least twice a month with no other distractions. Whether it be dining alone without a book or going to park and sitting on a bench for a while, I want to spend time by myself to help me better focus on God. I'm also not going to feel bad for people that are alone out and about. I'll never know their reasons for being alone, but it could be something that is beneficial to them.

Time to Vent..

Let's be honest...I love reading posts on the TSM section of totalfratmove.com. It's a website for sorority girls to post "total sorority moves" that basically just prove the stereotypes. I read for entertainment and usually get a good laugh out of it, until today when I decided to post a response to one of the posts I saw. Here is the post:

Being a child development major not because of any MRS degree, but because I love children and want to change the world. TSM.

I was so happy to see this post because this is EXACTLY the type of people that we need in the teaching field! So, I decided to post a reply to this post:

Love this! I teach middle school math, and while I could have gotten a job in any other math-related field, I chose teaching because I wanted to make a difference in the next generation. Snaps to you!

Naturally, I went back to see if anyone had posted on my reply, since it was my first post and all. Much to my dismay, here are the two replies on my post:

1) No you couldn’t…if you could have a job in any math-related field, you should have picked something that will actually make a difference. You could have worked in an engineering firm to develop more fuel efficient engines, or used theoretical concepts to validate hypotheses about the universe. Teachers are a dime a dozen, progression is forever.

2) Nobody “chooses” teaching. It’s a place where career aspirations go to die.

Now, I took the usernames off of these posts, but they were both posted by guys (their names had stuff to do with their fraternities). Since my post was on the TSM wall, my first thought was, "Why are these guys even LOOKING on the TSM wall, much less posting?" Then, I thought more about their responses and realized they are probably more of fraternity boys than fraternity men.

Two reasons these comments frustrate me:

-I was going to respond to the first post about my stellar school record, and then I realized that this person is just a cyber bully! Who in the world needs to get on the internet and just insult people they don't even know? The internet is one of the easiest places to follow the "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule. So, to go on the internet and constantly try to bring other people down just really says a lot about that person's character. They need to grow up and get a life.

-I hope these two guys never even consider going in to teaching because these comments are the complete OPPOSITE of what a teacher should think. First off, I will agree with the first poster that "teachers are a dime a dozen," but I will add that GOOD teachers are not. I personally believe that there are many teachers in the field that should not be teachers based on their credentials, attitude, etc. about the field. Anyone can go in to teaching, but not everyone in the field is actually good at their job. Good teachers are hard to find, and that's one reason I decided to be a teacher: I know my stuff, I'm passionate about learning, and I think that my personality is one that can help students achieve things in my class. The second poster just really has no idea what they're talking about. No one "chooses" teaching? I am one example that that is false--I have wanted to be a teacher all my life and did choose to teach. Being a teacher WAS my career aspiration, so this person just does not know what they are talking about. And yes, maybe some people go in to teaching because nothing else worked out, but honestly, those are people that shouldn't be teaching. Teachers should WANT to be there, as well as be knowledgeable about what they're teaching. That's one of the problems with our education system today, and until we weed out all the teachers that don't really care about what they're doing, we are going to continue to have struggling students and lag behind the rest of the world in academics.

Ok, I feel better now after typing out all my frustrations over those comments. If you read all of this, kudos to you! And needless to say, I just may refrain from posting on the TSM wall now if all I'm going to get out of it is negativity. Thanks :)