In my 25th year, I:
- Watched every season of Survivor with Julius
- Taught my very first college class, which was amazing. Yes, it was 7:30 in the morning and yes, I got a really bad dose of the flu partway through (and continued to teach...), but it was the fulfilment of a degree and a lot of hopes.
- Taught Seamus Heaney's Field Work
- and Hamilton
- and The Book Thief
- and Oscar Wilde's short stories
- Saw 21 Pilots in concert in Little Rock (because I won a radio contest!!!)
- Saw Panic! At the Disco in concert in Tulsa (which turned out to be incredibly weird)
- Attended a Redesign Summit with our office that ended both badly and great. I got a little sassy, which landed me in the "please make a public apology" arena, but it also was a huge opportunity for me to step up at work.
- I made a gigantic excel sheet of all the ideas and organized the living daylights out of it
- then broke up our office into committees
- and instigated us toward actually achieving goals we set during a group retreat.
- Got rejected for a PhD
- Got really into community Zumba classes
- Found and hired a new regional recruiter for Dallas to work under me
- Helped us hire a new admissions counselor
- Helped to create an Early Commit Track and a Community Changers Scholarship
- Went to Colorado for admissions counselor camp
- Helped Julius build and paint 5 sets of Corn Hole (complete with bean bags)
- Got a sweet little AirBnb with Julius in the middle-of-nowhere Texas
- it had a pool
- and roaches
- and an outdoor shower
- but we loved it
- Travelled to Odomfest and spent some gooooood family time at the lake
- Named Assistant Director of Admissions
- Attended my first Global Leadership Summit
- Completed my fourth travel season in Texas
- while also teaching my second in-person English II class
- I loved them. I LOVED them. It was emotional and connecting and challenging and all kinds of wonderful.
- Caught:
- 2 chinchilla rats
- 1 opossum
- 3 groundhogs
- and 1 very angry raccoom
- Attended the wedding of my best friend's much loved older sister
- Had Best Friend Weekend 2017 with Kira and Tyler (a beta test of things to come)
- notably, we went to the Gentry Safari, a movie in a cave, and ate all the foods.
- Ripped out and replaced our kitchen countertops and kitchen sink. By ourselves.
- Started "teaching" an online English I course for a school in Virginia.
- Got my first root canal
- Put together the facts and discovered that my chronic migraines were being caused by teeth grinding
- bought a $5 mouth guard that has, quite literally, altered my whole life.
- Decided I was unhappy with what desk life has turned my body into and lost 12 pounds (until travel season decided to squash my goals of pushing further into that goal)
- Went to Arizona with Julius thanks to my parents
- for my cousin's wedding to his sweet new wife
- and to see my bestie Sarah Cowles.
- Discovered Outlook Task Manager and fell deeply in love with it
- Got a brand new baby nephew!
- Wrote my third article for the faculty excellence magazine
- adopted a stray cat we named Ootzyde Ket (Oots for short)
- Got in a plane and went to Australia to celebrate 10 years of friendship with Kira and Tyler
I'm just so happy and deeply thankful.
