Series of (Un)fortunate Events: Chapter 11--Post-College

So even though my year as an RA was long and hard, I had our wedding to look forward to!!!


I moved into "our" apartment before Matt at the beginning of the summer of 2007, and I took summer school classes to catch up from the semester that I missed.  In July, we were married and everything went absolutely perfectly!!!  We went on a WONDERFUL honeymoon to Cancun, and it was so relaxing! I think I was the most relaxed there since I had been during that semester that I took off and lived at home.

I struggled with my GI symptoms all through the next year of college (my senior year) until I finally went in to discuss it with a doctor at the clinic at UNI.  The doctor there seemed to listen intently especially as I told him about my previous medical history--believe me it takes forever to go through everything, so I really thought he would listen to me and take me seriously when I told him that I poop ALL. THE. TIME. Plus I had these awful stomach pains too.  He wrote down my symptoms and told me that I had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) like the majority of college students because college is just a stressful time in one's life.  He suggested I eat the "BRAT" (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) diet for several days to see if that would calm anything down, but that this could be a lifelong thing that I just have to learn how to deal with and try not to "trigger" it.  Oh, he also told me to eat more cinnamon and peppermint.  I tried this--I really did, but I saw absolutely no results, and I felt utterly defeated.  I remember thinking, "well, I guess this is normal, and I'll just deal with it."

I walked at graduation from UNI in the Spring of 2008 and Matt and I moved to NW Arkansas in May.  I still had to student teach the next semester, and my program at UNI allowed us to student teach anywhere in the world.  My friends in Iowa were baffled when I chose Arkansas and they chose places like China, Thailand, Tanzania, etc.  Matt and I knew we wanted to live in NW Arkansas, so I thought it would help me get my foot in the door to student teach down here.

I did my first rotation in fourth grade at a very affluent elementary school in Rogers.  My cooperating teacher was WONDERFUL and she relinquished control to me so I really got to learn what it was like to run my own classroom.  I learned so much from her and felt great while student teaching in fourth grade (even though the age group is waaaaay out of my comfort zone.  Those little squirts are so little!!!).  Then I did my second placement in 8th grade math at a local middle school, and I was much more looking forward to this placement.  This experience was less positive and was just a bit more stressful, I'll say that....my symptoms flared up big time during this teaching experience, so I don't look back on it very fondly.  I just tried to make it through each day.  That was really hard, and I just didn't feel comfortable sharing about my bodily functions with my cooperating teacher...can you blame me???

I finished student teaching in December of 2008 and "officially" graduated and began looking for teaching jobs immediately, which are hard to come by in the middle of the school year.  I subbed a little here and there in January, and got a phone call in the middle of February about a long-term subbing position at a local elementary school--again for 4th grade.  I interviewed on a Friday, they "hired" me and I began on the next Monday.  Even though the grade level was not ideal, I knew I had to do what I could to "get my foot in the door."  I quickly learned that I was stepping into a stressful situation.  The teacher I was subbing for was on medical leave for gastric-bypass surgery, and she had basically taught from her desk all year.  She never got up.  Her students came up to her for everything.  Those kids were so shocked when I walked around the room and would come to their desk to help them with specific questions that they had.  About 80% of these students spoke English as their second language and spoke Spanish at home.  Most were on free-and-reduced lunch, and they were a sweet group of kids with A LOT of needs educationally, emotionally, physically, and so forth.  I was just doing the best I could each day to keep up because I literally jumped in with only a weekend to prepare.  I remember a Special Ed teacher coming into the classroom and yelling at me (in front of the students) because I did not send the correct worksheet with a student when I sent him down to her room.  Whew.  Crying in front of students--not something I ever thought I'd do as an adult, but there was a first time for everything.  I was a little bit in over my head during this placement, but I soon learned how to advocated for myself and just do the best that I could...she never apologized to me FYI, but I've forgiven her for it as I now know what a tough just Special Ed teachers have and she was probably just having a rough day.  But at the time, those were some HARD school days. 
I'm not sure how I made it through that subbing experience because I truly felt like I was in a "fake it til you make it" type situation...it was just so hard to come in to a classroom in the middle of the year, acclimate to the students quickly, and teach each subject when I really felt most comfortable with Math.  Again, my symptoms totally flared up during this experience, but I pushed through because that doctor back at UNI told me that they were "normal."  What else could I do??

Are you seeing a pattern of me taking on stressful jobs?  I am. Looking back, I never really thought of any of them as "stressful" at the time.  They were just new challenges that I embraced and looked forward to...but really they each took their toll on my body without me ever knowing it.  If you're not a teacher, some of these things might be hard to understand because all jobs are hard (teaching is just a unique job), and that's OK, but the big thing that I learn even as I type this is that I jump into things with two feet and work hard--I'm not afraid of a challenge AT ALL.

But sometimes those challenges come at a cost....

Next Chapter: Year 1 of teaching...

who can guess what sickness I came down with that year??

(leave a comment with your guess)  

You won't even believe it...or maybe you will?