I Have a JOB!!

The job hunt is officially over...at least for now anyway. As of last week I now work at The Sylvan Learning Center. I am working as their associate director.

This job came about in a random way. As most of you know i graduated in Elementary Education this last May. I have been applying for different teaching jobs throughout Utah as well as some in Texas. To apply to any school you first have to apply to the district that it is in. Then you have to have a screening interview with them. They will then rate you on a scale with other teachers. If the district decides to clear you then you are free to apply to schools. Some of the districts don't even let you apply to the schools, they just give each school a list of applicants and how they rate you. I had been applying online and then sending packets of application materials as well. I would check emails daily and websites daily to see if jobs were posted or if any new information had been posted. I had some emails asking for interviews, some interviews, and some phone calls, but really seemed right and nothing was working out. I had been doing this since April, and was pretty much to the point where I was worried about getting a job.

Then about two weeks ago I decided to check my U-mail account to see if I had been recommended for my actual license. It turns out that I had and that I had received it. I also had another email. This email said opening job. I clicked on it and found that it was a job opening for Sylvan. It just asked you to email in a resume if you were interested. I sent mine in not really thinking anything of it. I just figured that at this point I might as well apply anywhere. I received a phone call that afternoon.

This phone call was from Sylvan asking me to set up an interview. I called and set one up for that Thursday. On Thursday morning I gathered up my application materials and headed off to the interview. I ended up staying there for 2 hours. I interviewed with the the people in charge and felt really good about it. It just seemed like i had the answers and experience that they were looking for. After I talked to them i spent some time tutoring one of the students and observing the office. Before I left the lady in charge came up to me and said, "You know, you are my favorite out of all we have interviewed. The job is yours if you want it." I just stood there for a moment and she told me to think about for a night and give them a call tomorrow to let them know. It was funny though, as I was walking out they had just started interviewing someone else and she called out to me to make sure that i gave them a call.

So, I then went home and thought about it for a night. I talked to my mom about it and got her opinion as well. The thing is, I think I already knew deep down that I would take it. It just felt right. So, that is what I did. I called them on Friday and told them I would take the job.

I have now been to work three days. So far so good. I think that it will be a good place to be for the next little while or so. As the associate Director I am in charge of all of the scheduling for both the students and the teachers, training the teachers in the tutoring programs, updating the students lessons each night and pulling all of the materials that they will need for the next day, testing the students when they first come in to check what level they are at, giving progress monitoring tests to all of the students, and tutoring some of the students as well. It is a lot of new stuff to learn, but I think I will like it.

So, as I said earlier, the job hunt is now over. I am no longer worried about not having a job and not having an income. I am no longer stressed out about interviews and screenings. For now, I am good where I am at, and that is a great feeling. It might change in a year or so, but for now, I am good.

Happy Birthday Brett!

As some of you know, the fabulous Miss Brett Brown celebrated her 23rd birthday on June 16, 2010. Also, as some of you know I have been privileged enough to know Brett my whole life. As cousins we have been able to grow up together and spend many hours at family outings and such. But not only have we grown up being cousins, we have also grown up being friends. Friends who have had some of the most entertaining adventures, many random crazy nights, and lots and lots of laughter throughout the years. Even when we were little kids, we were still the best of friends already. We spent many years playing doctor, staking blocks to make crowns (even if they weren't allowed to be bigger then wendi's), building forts under the pool table, going to the zoo, and just being friends.

Thank you for being my friend my dear. You are an amazing girl and so full of life. Don't ever give up on your dreams. You will be great in whatever you choose to do. Happy Birthday to one of my true and faithful friends!

The First of the Trips

Every year around this time people start asking the you a question. It is a question that everyone seems to ask and a question that without fail gets asked every year. This question would be "what are you doing this summer? Do you have any fun plans or trips?" It is something that we all want to know. We want to know what fun things people are going to be up too. We want to hear about the adventures,and truth be told, we want others to hear and know about ours.

For me, it seems that I have the same response to this question every time it is asked, no matter what year. For you see, I tend to go on the same vacations and trips every year with the same people. Some of you might think that this is boring or lame, but for me it is fantastic. I love the trips that I take and I love the people that I go with. Don't get me wrong, I would love to go to different and new places as well, and I have nothing against going with other people. And I do go on different random trips here and there. But there are some trips that I love to go on every time summer rolls around. These trips include St. George, Bear Lake, Snowbird, and Lake Powell. These trips are something that I look forward to every year. It doesn't matter that I just went on these trips last summer or the year before. It doesn't matter that I go on these trips with the same people every year. Every time I go I have a blast. Every time I make new memories. Every time is a new adventure.

I went on the first one of these trips over Memorial Day Weekend. Every year a group of us girls get together and drive down south for a weekend in the sun. And even though we are just going to St. George, we have a blast and just have fun being with each other. We even tend to do the same things every year. We go to the Pizza Factory, go shopping to all our favorite stores, get pedicures, go to In-N-Out, go to the Temple, lay out by the pool, watch movies, take tons of random pictures and laugh all along the way. We may not do anything amazing or spectacular while we are there, but we have fun just the same. We have fun just being their together. It is the people that make this trip worth it, St. George just happens to be where we go.

Life Takes Action

Over the last couple of months in my life I have come to a point where it is time to make big decisions. A point where I truly have to decide what I want to do and where I want to end up in my life. I have been able to come to some conclusions and learn a few things along the way. I have learned things about life in general as well as about myself.

The first thing I learned was to keep on dreaming. No matter where you are in your life right now, the best thing that you can do to keep moving forward and to keep life exciting is to keep on dreaming. Keep thinking of what you want out of life and what you want to spend your time doing. Keep on dreaming of new things that you would like to do. Keep on dreaming of how you want to live.

The next thing that I learned was that you are not stuck in life. No matter where you end up in life or what you are currently doing, you are not stuck there. It doesn't matter what job you have of your current state of living, no matter what they are, you are not stuck in them. They all have the possibility to change and the probability to change over time anyway. Some people might see this as a scary concept that things can and will change. But for me, I see this as an adventure of possibilities. I am comforted by knowing that I am not stuck in my current position. I am also comforted by knowing that if I end up somewhere that I think will be good and it turns out horribly wrong that I have tho option to get out of it. I like knowing that I am not stuck. I like knowing that there is the possibility of change. Especially with the things that I do not like.

To go along with both of these things, the biggest thing that I have been continuing to learn is that life takes action. And not just anybodies action, but your action. Life takes doing something. You can dream all you want to in your life but if you never do anything about it, that it what it will always be...just a dream. It will never be anything more then a dream or a wish if you don't take the action to make it a reality. All it will ever be is just some thought that you had once. You have to be the one to take the action. You have to be the one to actually do something about it and make it more then just a dream.

Inside each of us there is a power. A power to dream. A power to do. A power to act. This power is there. It is there to help us live our lives. But the thing is, we have to have the courage and the guts to use it. It is a scary thing to dream and then even scarier to act upon that dream. So many things can go against it. So many things are there as obstacles that already make it look like you are going to fail. This is where we tend to stop. We tend to backtrack when we realize that there is fear within us as well. We tend to give up. but, what we have to remember is that we already have this power within us. We have already been given the strength and the power. The strength and the power to dream, to do and most of all the strength and the power to act.

Don't be afraid that you will fail, because if you stop there, then you will never know if you could have succeeded.

Graduation Day!!

One week ago today, May 7th, I was able to cross something off of my list of things to do. For you see, on this special Friday, I was able to graduate from the University of Utah.

This is something that has been in the works for awhile. Growing up I was always told to go to college and to get a degree. It was something that my mom would always tell me. She always wanted us to succeed in this world and has always felt that getting a good education was one thing that needed to be done. While she was telling us to get a degree she was also telling us all about the University of Utah and how great it was. So you see, ever since I was a little girl I always knew that one day I would go the school that made you bleed red. I knew that I would go to the University of Utah.

Therefore, when the day came that I was getting close to graduating high school I knew that I need to apply to go to college. I took the ACT test, only once, and then prepared my application. I will have you know that the only school that I applied to was the University o Utah. I did not feel the need to apply anywhere else since I knew that that was where I would go. And lone behold, I got accepted for the fall 2005 semester. That acceptance letter was what started my education at the University of Utah.

And now, five years later, I can say that it is complete. After all of the years of random classes for credits, 15 minute sprints across campus, riding the shuttle bus and praying that I would live to get off it, home football games in the MUSS, free food at the institute, sorority days and nights, working in an office for a science program, sweet talking faculty members to make sure I would pass, some random trips to the library just to say that I went there, getting lost in the tunnels that connect the buildings, fighting for parking spaces, and most of all just going to class and praying that I would pass the final, I have finally graduated.

What made my graduation day so much fun though, was the fact that I was not the only one who was graduating. It just turned out that on this special Friday my sister Wendi and her husband Ben where also graduating from the U. Each of us would finally have our degrees. Since all of us were graduating we all decided that we would make a day of it and go to each ceremony. The first ceremony that we went to was Wendi's on Thursday night. It was fun to see her walk across the stage and receive her diploma, well only the cover, from the College of Health.

After the ceremony went all went to dinner with our family to celebrate. then on Friday morning we all went to the huge University wide commencement ceremony. John Huntsman spoke and overall it was really good. From there went to lunch with the grandparents and then decided to kill some time taking pictures until the next ceremony. We had a lot of fun running around campus taking random photos of us all. The next ceremony happened to be mine.

My ceremony was being held at Kingsbury hall. For those of you who know, this building is not the biggest. I told my family that they would have to fight to get a seat and they did. But they all made and I got to walk across the stage to receive y own diploma cover from the College of Education. All in all, I was just really glad that I didn't trip and fall on my face. After my ceremony when run back up the hill to go Ben's. He graduated from the college of Engineering. I have to say that his ceremony was the longest one. They had so many students that were graduating form that college.






Overall, it was a fabulous day. One filled with family, friends, and lots of excitement and entertainment. One that still has not really sunk in yet. So,now I have this lovely piece of paper that says that I completed my B.S. degree. A piece of paper that says I learned and accomplished something. A piece of paper that says I am now capable of doing something... You know, I just might have to go back and get another one.