Surviving the Storm

Now that I know I have passed my KPTP, my heavy storm is only a light drizzle. I still have the concern of passing my last content test; however, I feel a great load has been lifted off of my shoulders. I have completed all of my full-time teaching duties, and I can't express how wonderful I feel about everything. I was talking to one of the other teacher's at our school about how fast the student teaching semester goes by. It seems like we only began student teaching just yesterday, and in three short weeks this experience will be over. It's amazing to reflect on all of the different experiences, the lessons learned, the moments of frustration, angst and the desire to give up. I have grown, I have learned to adapt and overcome, to accept that not all things will work out the way I want them to. I cannot believe that this is coming to the end. The picture up above is how I would put the end of this experience into a visual - I've survived the storm, now I'm coasting my way on to better and brighter days. My four years of college are finally coming to an end, and there's a rainbow at the end of my academic storm. I don't mean that I have completely disliked my academic journey, but there have been many things I have experienced through this journey. The best thing about journeys is the fact that we don't have to go through them alone.

This conversation from Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings has to be similar to the conversations that I have had with my friends this year -- I was definitely a Frodo at some times! You can listen to the speech on the right.
Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it's worth fighting for.

Thank you all for your encouragement through this entire process, I can't wait to celebrate all of our successes at our graduation ceremony. It's been a wild ride, but I'm so glad I was able to go through the experience of growing and becoming a teacher with the rest of you.

Live long and prosper, friends.
-Ms. A