Summerbridge...to hell

OMG

Back to the world of non-summerbridgey commitments. Boy, does that program ever suck up your entire life! I spent soooo much time and energy trying to get through the summer (how soon I forgot how grueling it is) that I was left incredibly exhausted and (if I may say so myself) quite irritable by the end of the day. When you add on top of it all a lot of craziness with regards to my mom and slowing moving out and maintaining my sanity, life was fairly hectic during the past two months. Hopefully, now that the burden of SB has ended, I will be able to regain focus on things that matter in the world (i.e. blogging). Although, student-teaching is just around the corner and that might bring some craziness with it as well.

I'm really hoping that teaching isn't as bad as summerbridge. I really don't want to be stressed and tired all the time. It's one thing to bare it for 8 weeks, but another thing to do it for 9 months. I forgot how it sucks up your time, energy, and basically your whole life. But, man, when you're there it feels so worth it. I feel bad for my family though. I am so summerbridgey and energetic all day long. Don't even get me started singing the Bazooka Bubblegum song. I can even give the cheerleaders a run for their money with my cheer action. This one girl, Pa Shoua, who is very quiet and who I had never had a conversation with until halfway through the summer at lunch, told me that I crack her up every time I do something at our All School Meeting. And my advisees love me, which is very important because I spend so much time with them. At the end of the day all the teachers stand on these posts that line the street and wave to the buses as they drive away with the kids. I swear, as soon as my feet hit the ground after jumping off the post, it hits me how exhausted I am. I feel so bad for my family cuz I'm such a different person when I get home than when I'm at school.

But it is worth it though. The students have such amazing spirit and potential. The teachers (with very few exceptions) are the most incredible assortment of people I can imagine. I'm always amazed how SB is able to bring so many good, talented, and all-around awesome people together to work at and achieve common goals. I taught English this summer and it was so rewarding to watch these students, who were struggling so much to read and write a coherent paragraph at the beginning of the summer, analyze texts and create some well structured and thoughtout paragraphs. It was my music class that was the highlight of my days though. We did such cool stuff and the students were awesome and I just got to share responses to a bunch of my favorite songs. We did cool things like creating a make-believe rock band, watching the Thriller movie (13 min. long!), having a sock hop where we danced the pony and the twist, creating and performing their own blues songs, going to "church" to sing gospel, and doing country line, salsa, and Hmong dancing. On the last two day we talked about protest songs and the uses of music for societal goals and then we staged our own protest march speaking out against music programs being shut down in public schools while we sang "We Shall Overcome." So, you can tell this stuff is right up my alley.

I'm really hoping I'll be able to keep in contact with a bunch of the teachers and in close contact with some. Even today, despite Summerbridge ending on Thursday, I hung out with 3 teachers and went to the state fair. I spent so little money! Thanks to Stephanie, one of these teachers, we had free admission and pulled off free-parking. Plus, we got into a reception for the concert that had drinks and dinner included. I ended up buying a churro just to spend some money! And I spent sooo much time looking at the exhibits. The people I went with were big on the exhibits, you could almost call them exhibitionists, but that wouldn't be the right word. They were pretty cool though, I especially liked the exhibit on surfing that went along with the beach party theme of the fair this year. It was totally rad!! I even enjoyed browsing quilts, but it helps having someone else beside you who is totally into them. And guess who we saw in concert...BOYZ II MEN!!!! Doesn't that just take you back to the 90s or what?? But, it was pretty cool and when you add on some awesome fireworks and a trip round the ferris wheel, you've got yourself a pretty amazing state fair trip.

In the end though, you have to come home from the beach party. My mom has not been getting much better of the last few weeks. She had surgery to remove a tumor in her leg and recovered pretty quickly. Until recently she was doing a lot and now she is really struggling. My sister had to fly out because things are getting worse. Mentally she is having a hard time concentrating and has been struggling with depression. Physically she is getting thinner and it has been hard realizing and accepting that she's not doing well. Oh well, I can't write more now so you'll have to wait to later. Enjoy this though!