What Are You Waiting For?

“I can hear God now
From a silver cloud
I got plans for you child
What are you worried about?
You know life's too short
What are you waiting for?”
~Heidi Newfield

Workdays are over! It has been an exhausting week of getting to know everyone, meetings, convocation, setting up my room, and lesson plans. I still don’t feel completely ready, but tomorrow is the big day! D-day approaches…

The English dept. is absolutely amazing; they have taken care of me and made me feel right at home. The whole school is really great. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone. There is a sense of having to prove myself, being the ‘new girl’ and all. I think that is why I have been so worried about my lessons and getting them ‘just right’. There are a lot of components to teaching English, it’s not just the literature, but remembering to teach the concepts, analyzing the literature, looking at the grammar, understanding the author, and figuring out vocab. There is so much I want to teach them, but I mainly just want to teach my students to love literature. To love it the same way Mrs. Vaughn and Mrs. McKinney did when I was in high school.

Everyone is quickly finding their ways in the new lives we’ve been presented. Meeting people and still finding time to call and e-mail one another to catch up. One of my favorite quotes from Grey’s Anatomy is when Meredith says, “We’re adults, when did that happen? And how do we make it stop?” - That about sums up my life, but with all its headaches, I’m kind of enjoying it too. I was telling another English teacher the other day that all my life I’ve loved hanging out with adults. Since my Mom was a teacher at my elementary school I always got to be with the teachers and hang out with them. Now I’m the adult, I’m the teacher. Kind of crazy!

Like I said before, life is an adventure, this is the beginning of this ride…so the best I can figure is to throw my hands up in the air and enjoy it!

Welcome to English!

I finally got the chance to take some pics of my classroom, actually I just finished setting it up today!! Very excited. Here is a glance into Ms. Barrier's room! (It looks better in person...)


Welcome to Ms. Barrier's room!!

This is for the sophomores. We're all about some world lit.!!

American Authors for English III

One side of the class

The other side...

Living and Learning

Well I survived my first week of being a teacher. I’m not sure that it counted, but I learned a lot! I’ve spent the past week in Rockingham County orientation. It seems like a wonderful county to work for, very progressive and caring about its students and teachers (which is important!).

I’ve been spending some time in my classroom getting ready and prepared for everything. I have lots of pictures of friends and family around me. I always like to do that, surround myself with the people I love. Speaking of, since living on my own, I have received an amazing amount of love from my family and friends. Phone calls and cards and e-mails and IM’s, it has meant so much to me. To know that I have a support system behind me is the best feeling ever. It has also been wonderful getting to know the staff and faculty at my high school. Everyone I have met has been so nice. Like I said before, I love nice people. Mean people scare me.

Next week begins a week of workdays. I’m looking forward to getting my plans ready, my room finished, and getting to meet more people. Granny says I have to be friendly and out going, I don’t want to disappoint her.

Everything is coming along and I’m excited about the journey I’m embarking. I have wonderful people supporting me and God on my side. I figure I’m pretty good with that. I’m not going to lie, it’s all very different, but I’m coping and trying to enjoy the ride!

Growing Up

In lieu of growing up, I decided to reminisce and make a list of things I miss from childhood!

1) Not having to actually work on workdays. Em just realized this the other day.

2) Granny’s butter sandwiches. I’m sure she’d still make one for me if I ask, but I’m also pretty sure I now realize how unhealthy they were. Literally, bread with an inch of butter between.

3) Mom buying groceries.

4) Muppet Babies, David the Gnome, Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World, Clarissa Explains it All, classics…

5) I don’t recall counting my calories as a child…not that I do it now, but I’ve thought about it…def didn’t when I was little.

6) Being pushed in a stroller…how amazing was that?!

7) Happy Meals…a great meal AND a toy.

8) I didn’t need Mapquest, the only place I needed to know how to get to was Granny’s.

9) Kindergarten…seriously, best grade ever. Naps, snack, and story time.

10) A hug from mom could make it all better…well I guess some things never change. :)

This I Believe

I shared this with the sophomores I student taught last semester. I did this lesson with my methods teacher. What do you believe in? "This I Believe" is a project that the NPR does. I decided it would be interesting to do with the sophomores while reading Night. Before I gave them an assignment, I read my own for them to get an idea from. This is what I believe in.

Belief is a powerful thing. It’s what holds humanity together. What do I believe in? This is a loaded question. What would a person be without their beliefs? They would be a shell of a person. Everyone has to believe in something.

I believe in a lot of things. I believe in sunsets, lying out on the beach, the waves of the ocean, being a Southern lady, thank you letters, good friendships, and that my Mommy can make anything better. I believe that watching a great episode of Grey’s and eating a piece of cake can really make you happy. I believe that my Granny sings the best lullabies and makes the best strawberry cake ever. I believe in prayer. I believe that I am suppose to be a teacher. But the one belief that has gotten me through, the one belief I always count on, is that everything happens for a reason.

Almost 5 years ago my beautiful and seemingly healthy cousin Melissa found out that she had cancer. It was a blow to our family and a shock to me. The question that kept bouncing in my mind was, ‘Why do good things happen to bad people?”. She fought a courageous battle and taught me many lessons during the way. Her humor and love of teaching powered her through her disease. Those things have stayed with me and will continue to be with me as I live my life.

Melissa lost her brave battle 3 years ago. There is not a day I don’t think about it, and probably never will be. It’s hard to lose someone who is so young. However, the things she taught me will continue to live on in me forever.

The most important lesson I learned through the experience with Melissa is that every single thing in life happens for a reason. Bad things, good things, crappy things, amazing things, they are all apart of the plan that holds your life together. There are many times in life and many situations when it would have been easy for me to give up. When it would be, for me, a better solution to just throw in the towel and call it a day. But, when I think to myself my simple belief and motto of ‘everything happens for a reason’, it somehow gets me through.

The lessons in our lives are sprinkled here and there. We are brought here on this Earth for a reason and the things that happen throughout it, good and bad, happen for a reason. Though it’s sometimes hard to see exactly what the reason is or why it’s happening, believing that one day we will figure it out, it helps me.

Everything happens for a reason. It’s a simple idea with so much with it. It gets me through. It always will.

Little Things

"It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones."

~Jean Webster

It is so often in this fast-paced, changing, and all together crazy world, that we don't take the time to enjoy the little things. Like how I am sure that my friend, Caroline, would be content looking outside a window to the mountains her entire life. She loves the beauty and spirit that lies within them. Or my friend Case looks so peaceful when her eyes look at the vastness of the ocean, like the world is perfect in those moments caught in the shore. It is the peace we find in the little moments, the little things. Everyone has their 'little things'. The little things that bring us joy.

I have lots of ‘little things’. Like the smile on a child’s face, as if the world is perfect through their tiny eyes. Finding a new great song and sharing it with my friends then singing it loudly in a car. Listening to an old song from your childhood that invokes so many wonderful memories (Reba…). Laying around the living room with all of your best friends and laughing and telling stories and eating. Sitting on the beach and looking at the great big ocean, feeling the peace that only it can give me. When my Mom calls me lovebug. My Granny singing to me. Taking pictures that will remind me of good times when I look back at them. When I am driving early in the morning and can catch the sunset coming up. Traveling to a new place and seeing all that it has to offer.

When we’re able to stop and look at everything around us, we can see how amazing the world is. It’s easy to overlook all of it with all the craziness that the it brings, but it also brings simple joys and pleasures. Those are what makes the world a better place.