7

There are 7... Count them! SEVEN days left of this semester and I will finally be free of the Spring semester... aka, the semester from hell, the 5 months that nearly drove me to kill people, semester without friends, etc. (There's plenty of other ways that I refer to this semester, however some of them are not appropriate. So, I'm just going to leave you with those...)

If you don't really keep up with my life except in this blog, then you don't really know how insane my life has been. Spring semester is usually the hardest, in my opinion. Mainly because it's a easy, nice ride to the top for the first half, then the week before spring break happens. And for whatever reason, every professor in America thinks that it is perfectly okay to assign the biggest, craziest, most important assignments of the semester over spring break. So you don't really get a break, you basically just work on school crap the whole time. This was no different for me this year. Mom and I went to Washington, DC, and as soon as I got back to Wilmington, my feet hit the ground and I haven't really stopped since.
I had 18 hours of classes last fall, and 3 of those were big elementary education classes, PLUS 2 history classes with tons of reading and writing and I didn't feel as stressed out as I do this semester with only 13 hours and 4 classes.


Seriously?

Oh, and not to mention all the EXTRA work, meetings, stuff in general that I'm having to do on TOP of everything else for internship in the fall. I have a weekend full of going through old files and jump drives to find papers and projects that hopefully (by some miracle) managed to be saved on my computer so that I can upload all of that into my ePortfolio for my teacher internship.

With only 7 days left, I'm finding myself even more thankful that it's almost over.  The end of July will mark 2 years since I left Los Angeles and came back to Wilmington. And when I sit down and think of all of the things that I have accomplished since that tearful trip home, I'm amazed at what has happened. And I have so, so many things to be thankful for.

Recap:
-UNCP
-Apartment
-New and amazing friends
-3 STW TEC weekends that will forever be in my heart as 3 of the best weekends of my life
-2 amazing Women's retreat weekends
-Chancellor's and Dean's lists for different semesters at school
-An aunt times 2 last summer, as I became an aunt to precious twins Iris and Tucker, who joined big brother Keller!
-Celebrations of weddings, engagements, and babies with friends from my past, and from church
-Mourning the loss, but celebrating the lives of a few people who impacted me more than I'll ever be able to understand
-Survived turning 25... and then 26
-2 inductions into 2 national honors societies! (in two months!)
-1 semester away from my DEGREE!

I hope that anyone that reads this, knows how thankful I am for the blessings that have been placed into my life. I have a family that is amazing beyond words. A church family that prays for me and takes care of me and is always there to listen. A TEC and VdC family that somehow God saw me deserving enough to be a part of. I have the best friends in the entire world. And even though I have made quite a few mistakes along this bumpy little journey of mine, I know, without a doubt, that I am exactly where God wants me to be for this moment in time.

I can't wait for the next 7 days to go by, and for this semester to be over. And I can't wait to walk into my 2nd grade classroom and to be able to start my student teaching internship in August.  And I REALLY can't wait to walk across that stage and grab my diploma in December!