I've been missing-in-action for quite some time. Somewhere between the sunny days of summer when I had an abundance of me time and downtime, and the chilly days of fall- feeling swamped and overwhelmed with work, I fell off the face of the blog-world earth.
And I'm back. If only for a short time, I am back to tell you that life has taken so many unexpected, wonderful, and incredible turns.
I began my teaching career, and was immediately thrown right into the thick of it all. People can warn you, they can tell you what it will be like, they can even give you real-life accounts of the first year of teaching, but until you're sinking knee-deep into it, you will never really know exactly what it's like. It's full of emotion. Overwhelming emotion that, at times, consumes who you are as a being. You go from mountain-top to Grand-Canyon-sized valleys and back in a matter of days. You're exhausted to the point where you collapse on your bed at home wondering how you're ever going to get up and do it all again tomorrow, and then you do. But the underlying tone of it all is this pure joy. At least for me it is. It's this unexplainable feeling of accomplishment, and excitement and relationship at the end of each day. It's this exhausted, I don't know how I'm going to go back but I want to type of feeling and it's so. darn. exciting. I can honestly and truly say, I love it. I absolutely love everything about it. What a blessing.
I am thoroughly convinced that the Man-Upstairs knew exactly what he was doing when he put it on my heart to be a teacher. Through all of my doubts, my regrets, my I-don't-know-if-this-is-what-I-was-meant-to-do's, through every night spent thinking about my other options, and every word uttered saying "I'll give it a try." He was looking down on me saying I know what I'm doing, Amber. I've got this. Just trust me. And although I will admit there were times I absolutely didn't trust him, didn't even trust myself, I stuck it out because I knew there must be a reason and a plan for my life far beyond what I could comprehend.
And I am so glad I did. I am incredibly happy. I genuinely love each and every one of my co-workers. I feel deeply blessed to work at the most amazing place on earth with a family- yes, a family- of people who are amazing individuals. And I care about my students far more than I ever thought I could, or would- but I do.
To top it all off, Rob finally popped the question. I am marrying my best friend. I knew this day would come, but I could have never imagined what it would be like when I could actually say those words.
So, in between every lesson-planning, worksheet-making, paper-correcting night, I am joyfully planning my wedding to the man of my dreams. And I'm sending up a lot of thank yous to the Big Guy for carefully crafting my life into something so beautiful, and more precisely planned out than this anal-planner of a girl could plan out herself.
