I've Got Sunshine On a Cloudy Day

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Confucius  I find it fatefully fitting that these words of wisdom and inspiration are on the top of the webpage for the new school I will be a part of in just a few days. I clicked on "Principal's Message" as I decided to check up on my new school shortly after I was hired, and a smile crept across my face. After those endless applications that haunted me and kept me restless for the majority of my summer, I have landed my first full-time teaching position. The feelings I described when I was offered the position down in Virginia were the exact opposite I felt when I was offered this position in the small Connecticut town. I am excited, thrilled even. I am relieved. I am ready. I am ready to see the gleaming faces of the young children that will look up to me as their teacher, tutor, and as a role model. I am ready to learn from my fellow staff and experienced teachers in the building while I deve

Over the past few months I have learned to train my brain and my thoughts within my brain to stay positive. I'll be the first one to tell you that not knowing the next step in one's life is although at times exhilarating, most definitely unsettling and, to say the least, stressful. There have been studies done and polls taken which show that people need some sort of stress in their lives to keep moving, to keep on keeping on. If we strolled down Easy Street at all times with no curves or bumps or detour signs, nothing would get done and even the most motivated and driven people would become lazy and comfortable in their own daily rituals. I personally enjoy reading motivational books written by people that have overcome a wide range of adversity. I enjoy reading inspirational and thought-provoking quotations written by people, in some cases, hundreds of years ago before many of the stressors in my life ever even existed, but that still stand so true no matter the time, era, or