Learning to Live

As a future English teacher I'm supposed to tell people to read books. It's my job. But we all had those English teachers that made us read books that we hated and that ruined reading for some of us. I hope I'm not that English teacher, but I know it can sometimes be unavoidable. As a reader who just finished my latest book in tears I wish that I could make everyone love and appreciate reading as much as I do. For those of us that read regularly, we understand the connection that we can make with characters. We understand how easy it is to lose ourselves in the text. We can become a part of the story. We can spend hours and hours reading. The English teacher in me wants to argue that reading is important for a lot of reasons; specifically, helping improve information literacy, understanding important elements of literature, developing critical thinking skills, and so many more. Although I agree with all of these reasons, I think there is more. We should read to lose o...

In my eyes, my grandma is the most wonderful human on the planet. Today was her birthday and I am using it as an opportunity to express my love for her.  As you can tell, my grandma is one of my favorite people ever. Not only does she make AMAZING french toast, but she makes it for me every time I come home, and then she just listens to me ramble on and on about my life while I gobble it all up. She has been making this french toast for years and it has never changed, and neither has she. She is the greatest listener of all time and she also offers great advice. However, she gives advice in a way different from most people because she's not telling me how to live my life; she is simply offering suggestions and they are so wise I usually have to take it. I have learned countless life lessons from her and I am so blessed to have had her by my side no matter what I am going through.  Although she gives me great verbal advice, she also sets an example for me by the way she ...

This past week was our Spring Break and I was lucky enough to spend it with a wonderful group of people on a Habitat for Humanity trip to La Porte, TX. This trip was an amazing experience and it taught me some valuable lessons about life. The first thing I learned is what happens to a random collection of people when you throw them together on a bus for 25 hours, make them sleep in the same space, and force them to build a house together. All of these things might sound like they would make a person go crazy, but the reality is that it creates a bond that lasts forever. Our entire group came from different parts of campus and we did not know each other well before the trip, but I can assure you that this group of people now has a secret language that definitely corresponds to late night games of Charades. And I can tell you with certainty that we learned things about each other that we may not have ever cared to learn (IBS). There were also countless hours of laughter, followed by ...