Who I Am - Or, I DID MY HOMEWORK, How 'Bout You?

When I was five years old, I realized that my life was finite.  I sat on the back porch steps of my childhood home staring at a pecan tree and when one of the nuts fell to the ground, it struck me that the tree had been around longer than me and would be around long after my body returned to dust.  I wasn't frightened by that discovery - almost more comforted by it because I knew then what I still know now - what really matters.

I was - and still am - an excellent student.  I earned nothing less than an A in my academic career, I was involved in everything from Student Council to orchestra to Academic Decathlon.  I took AP everything and was accepted socially by all the different peer groups that look very similar to the ones we find in the halls of PLHS.  I scored perfectly on my ACT, was accepted to all the colleges I applied to including Wellesley, Yale, and Rice and ended up with a full academic scholarship to the Harvard of the South.

But none of that actually says anything about me.  It just shows you that I could (and can) play the game well.  Perhaps what you should know is that I am a faithful friend, a loyal person to my people, a mother to two beautiful souls, and a wife to a beloved who is the true definition of a man.  I'm a sister and despite having lost both of my parents in less than 2 years, I am still a daughter.  Purple is my favorite color and reading and writing is like breathing to me.  Without it, I would not exist.

I'm highly observant and wickedly gifted when it comes to details but you could place me in a forest and ask me to count the trees at which point I would ask, "What trees?".  I didn't start drinking coffee until after I had my eldest daughter.  I don't function well on little sleep and Lenny Kravitz is my number one crush followed closely by Benedict Cumberbatch.  I don't know what that tells you but it's true.

I drink a cup of warm lemon water every morning, I practice yoga both on and off the mat, and when I fall for you, I fall hard and fast and get all sorts of hurt.  My mantra for life comes from the incomparable Cheryl Strayed and I live each moment adhering to her wisdom to be brave enough to break [my] own heart.

If you are one of my people, you know it, and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you including dousing you in truth tea.  The opposite of my love is indifference and my playlist is as diverse as the world we live in.  I believe in tiny threads that connect us all and my favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption and my favorite sport is baseball.  Go Cubs.  Go Rangers.

I'm a native Texan who is as comfortable in a pair jeans as a fish is in water, and teaching is my calling.  I don't believe in luck, but I do believe in gratitude and I am surrounded by magic every day of my life.

I live and love wholeheartedly and I am your 11th grade English teacher this year.

Buckle up.