Not Enough Hours in a Day

I'm fairly certain the best way to manage a blog is not by forgetting you have one for the better part of a year.  That being said, life has been a whirlwind- after talking to my mom this morning, and hearing how my dad is swamped at work with 4 fewer employees than normal and how my grandma is back to working 2 part time jobs again, I'm beginning to wonder if life ever does allow for a breath of fresh air.

This Sunday morning, I don't have any quips on the current things happening in agriculture or new ideas to make fun of my own attempts at being a human being.  Frankly, life has just been too overwhelming these past months for that sort of thing.  What I do have is an update on the happenings of my life of late- mundane or otherwise.

My last post was in November, so we'll pick up there.  The big parts of my life since then have been:

National Ag Ambassador Team: training conference in Florida gave me a chance to see good friends.

Ag Fest: Organizing a campus wide event promoting agriculture- most-fun-of-my-life, least-sleep-of-my-life kind of deal.  And hey, I got to make Reagan kiss a goat- so it's pretty much a win for all.  You can see the cool video my friend Paige made to see the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6GmRCSuq8A

Rural Grocery Initiative: I took a job at the Center for Engagement and Community Development (CECD) after I fell in love with my rural sociology class.  This initiative built an online tool kit which provides rural grocery owners with online resources to start and improve rural grocery stores.  Since many rural businesses struggle to stay open with such small populations as a market base, many small towns lose their grocery stores.  This is a pretty bad deal when the next option for getting groceries could be over an hour away.  I had way too much fun making this video during the sociology class about the issues facing rural communities and how FFA impacts them- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3i_pu47bLo

Blue Key: Great friend, great memories.  Also revamped and organized the workshop curriculum.  But mostly just enjoyed time with happy people :)

Interviewing for post-grad jobs: Well this was the biggest adventure of them all.  The idea of being an ag teacher had been in the back of my mind since I served as a state FFA officer my sophomore year of college.  But I really enjoyed my major in horticulture- decisions, decisions.  After applying for a few random jobs that I just couldn't see myself doing, I decided to go for it.  Spring break brought interviews at a few schools and I found a spot at Hill City.  I knew I had a tough road ahead going into this job without a teaching degree and no experience as a student teacher.  Hah- if only I knew what I was in for!

Graduation: My mom and great aunt planned a super nice party after graduation and I was blessed to have the support of many family and friends.  Giving the student address at graduation was an incredible experience, though I am shocked the College of Ag trusted me with a microphone.
P.S. if you haven't gotten a thank you card from me, it's because I'm a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad person.  Don't give up on me yet.

Welcome to the Real World! (they said to me condescendingly): June commenced traveling to DC with the kids from Hill City attending Washington Leadership Conference and taking my agriculture Praxis exam to prove I was qualified to teach ag.  In July I moved to Hill City, in a nice little rental and also attended a conference in Colorado focused on teaching through student discovery.  Throughout the summer I started my first online classes to become certified as a teacher through a non-degree grad school program at Fort Hays.  And in August, I took the officer team to Lake of the Ozarks for retreat and school began!

Since then, life has pretty much been making lesson plans and grading papers mixed in with getting kids prepped for Career Development Events, planting wheat plots at the school farm, and listening to my students spout social media trends when I ask them questions: "21, a potato flew around my room, look at all these chickens," etc. Not to mention attempting to stay on top of my own online classes to get that teaching certificate.

Amid all that craziness, I happened to go on a date with a guy I had shared several horticulture classes with.  Finding a great guy right before you both graduate and move away is a great idea and I highly recommend it to everyone who likes to feel emotionally unstable.  But when (as he puts it), he pretty much needed a guy with a glow baton directing planes down the runway to get my hints, what's a girl to do.  Over the summer, Lance had an internship at Ward feed yard in Larned.  At the end of the summer, we made a tremendous decision and he moved to Norton, half an hour north of Hill City, to work as an assistant manager at a feed yard in the area.  With him working 14+ hour days, seven days a week, and me stressing out over all of my irons in the fire, I don't know what we would do without each other.  But since we are apparently gluttons for punishment, we also got an Australian shepherd puppy named Blue.  He hasn't been too much of a hassle other than chewing my internet cord in half and destroying my screen door- luckily both replaceable, though not fun to pay for.

And that brings us to now.  I am so happy to be back in northwest Kansas and close to family.   But I am also getting to experience first hand many of the disadvantages of being a first year teacher as well as a young person in a rural area.  On the bright side I get to have my first ever planning period in the spring, but unfortunately I will lose my fun 8th grade class as they transfer to their other semester courses.  Taking this job, for some reason it never occurred to me that the only people I would see all day were aged 13-18.  While they are definitely full of energy and QUESTIONS that put me to the test everyday, it would be nice to see another adult every once in a while- or at least someone who is masquerading as an adult, like me.

Lastly, if any friends and family happen to be reading this- I MISS YOU!  Living in a cell phone free building has put a real damper on our relationships and having your students on social media makes that a lot less appealing.  I hope to catch up with you all soon.

Dang. I need to work on my brevity- but I guess a year does warrant a few paragraphs.
Mostly I can't believe it's already November- time flies and there are not enough hours in the day (either that or not enough motivation in my coffee cup).  But at least one thing hasn't changed: I haven't a clue what I'm doing, but am sure enjoying the ride.