Summer Style

I like how breezy it feels to wear shorts for the first time

I like the wedge of the flip flop between my toes

I like buying cheep summery shoes from WalMart

I like feigning a tan when my freckles pull together

I like knowing that a summer day could turn to an overcast, stormy evening

I like doing devotions on a swing outside

I like sipping Coke and reading a novel

I like sand volleyball

I like moving around

I like road trips and wearing sunglasses all day

I like riding bikes

If winter was actually spring this year, then do we get summer for spring and summer for summer? I hope so.

Expressions

The thing about being a high school teacher is that I can't help but reflect on how I once viewed the world.

What I believed in high school:

~I'd never wear makeup

~I'd stay in Montana

~I'd be a nurse's aid if college didn't work out

~I'd maybe work at a bible camp

~Life was bound never to change

~Boys would forever keep their distance

~Some would be life-long friends

~CDs were the last stop, once and for all, for music

~Other than these things, I didn't really enjoy thinking about the future

What I now understand:

~Makeup=professionalism. Dangit

~It's worth travelling. Oh, and absence/distance makes the heart grow fonder

~I did work at a bible camp, really enjoyed it, but found out I'd rather teach

~Life changes all the time, but in high school you're so in-the-moment and non-sentimental that you don't realize the changes. I think I defined changes by whether or not I'd get a boyfriend. That was the single most important and big thing kids in my high school could have going. That or track all-stardom. Of course, I learned better upon attending college and choosing to just become more awesome than search rabidly for boys

~Boys don't keep their distance forever. And the good ones wait until they've grown up a bit. Now I definitely believe that I was a closet romantic in high school. I wrote poems about it and such #embarrassing

~You know how when you're little you say to your best friend, "This will never change"? It does change. But it's not bad. And you can be proud of growing older and finding your place, so I've resolved to be happy for the friends that find a different path

~I just got an iPod shuffle years after they first came out. Up until Christmas 2011 I'd been using CDs. Technology changes blah blah blah

~A person must be able to balance thoughts of the past, present, and future

My students will definitely change. I can be certain of it. But for the time being, I like hearing them state opinions about which they're 100% sure, or yell out to each other, "You're my bestie!" (I don't really enjoy the wording so much), or knowing that they believe making the basketball team is the single most important event of their life, or seeing a girl with no makeup and grunge era boots, or watching them sit in particular crowds, and knowing that once they leave they'll be all mixed up and suddenly the systems of high school won't matter as much in professional life. They'll be all jumbled up.

And it will be awesome.