Day 16 - Describe a passion you have
When I see this, two things come to my mind automatically: 1) Teaching/Education and 2) Spreading awareness of Cystic Fibrosis.
Teaching/Education: I graduated from college with a degree in Elementary Education in 2010 and I have yet to find my first teaching position, but have been a teaching assistant for the past two years. It's not quite the same, but I know that I'm in the right field. I love working with kids everyday whether they're five or ten, special ed. or regular ed., I've worked with them all. I don't refer to my job as 'work', when I say I'm leaving I say that I'm going to school - it just doesn't feel like 'a job'. Yes, some days are tough/hard, but then I think about what I'm doing and how we all have good days/bad days, I try to go back the next day with a better attitude.
I love watching students learn and grow, especially the younger ones because everything is new and exciting to them. I wish I got so excited that I jumped up and down anytime someone understood what I was saying, or because I had a banana in my lunch, or because a staff member is wearing a hockey shirt - they're just so fun!! The absolute best though, is when you know they've been struggling with a concept and then there's that one day when they finally 'get it' and you just watch their face light up! Priceless. I cannot wait to have my own classroom one day so that I can make an impact on more than two students per school year. But until then, I'll just make the best out of what I have and work with the best staff ever!
Spreading Cystic Fibrosis awareness: This is something fairly new that I would say I'm passionate about because I used to only tell the people I was close to about my CF. I never know how people are going to react when they find out about my CF - sometimes they ask questions, sometimes they get that face where you can tell they feel bad for me, sometimes they just nod, walk away and go research it - I think it's different for each person and the situation. Personally, I'm not afraid to answer questions about it when people find out - I'd much rather they ask me than go looking online at worse case scenarios and freaking out and thinking that I'm going to die. Don't tell me you feel sorry for me either - I haven't encountered this one too much before, but sometimes I can just tell by the way people look at me that they kind of feel bad for me - don't. This is something I've lived with my whole life, I don't know any different, plus there are many, many people who are worse of than me, and I'm doing the best I can with what I've got and that's just life.
I've also been really trying to spread awareness of just CF in general. I really don't like that a lot of people don't know what CF is because they've never heard of it. I wish there were commercials on TV promoting awareness, especially around Great Strides season. This is a disease that affects so many people, young and old (yay for the old people!) and it just needs to be brought to attention. Thankfully, with all of the recent drug developments, I think the word is spreading a little more. I hope to be spreading awareness about CF to pretty much anyone I meet (I'm not talking about the cashier at Target or Walmart) but the people that I work with, and all of my family and friends because chances are they'll tell someone else and the chain keeps going and eventually it won't be, "Cystic Fibrosis? What's that?" It'll be "Cystic Fibrosis, oh I work with someone who has that, she's doing so well (or whatever they'd say)."
There are other things that I'd consider myself passionate about including taking care of myself and my relationship with Tim. They kind of go hand in hand because I want to take care of myself so that I can live as long as I can to be with Tim and hopefully have a family. I take care of myself because I have him in my life. He motivates me, whether he realizes it or not, to be the best person I can be each and every day; I love him very much.
No comments:
Post a Comment