I think I exceptionally loved this book for one reason: The struggle of Catherine was transparent and honest from beginning to end.  This book was not just about a success story of a mother of two autistic children and how they overcame what was told to be impossible to find a cure, but the mistakes, misery, tears, as well as the joy and victory of this journey to fight autism.  Many times I feel that parents are devastated by the news of autism and can go into two extremes of feeling it will never get better or thinking that their child will miraculously better.  It is through Catherine we are able to see that the cure was nothing near a miracle, but pure effort that occurred through time.  Catherine concludes this book by reminding parents that there is no miracle cure and that recovery from autism is a long, painful process. She reminds parents that each child will need a therapy that works specifically for them and not one is necessarily better than the other.  She also reminds the parents that it is not to blame someone, but to fight this with your child as one team.  I felt it was so encouraging to see a story of a mother who is more than willing to expose her mistakes and flaws to encourage parents of other autistic children and enable them to feel okay about the mistakes they might be feeling guilty for.  This book really resounds that honesty is the best medicine for the broken heart of the parents that are struggling to fight autism with their child.  Through this book, if I were a parent of a child with autism, I would find comfort and encouragement in knowing that it is not about curing my child, but finding the best method to help my child successfully adapt to a way of living that they feel most comfortable in.

The question of what one would do if they were to hit the jackpot has always been a favorite question asked among crowds for as long as we can possibly remember.  However, no matter how many times I have been asked, I have yet to really have an answer to how I would spend the money that I earned through the jackpot. However, here are a few theories that have crossed my mind:

1. Donate a portion to charity.
2. Buy my parents a house each and leave aside enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
3. Quit my job and travel the world.
4. Invest in real estate or other things that would produce a profit from the originally invested amount.
5. Build a school system.

Although, these are all ideas that sound extravagant, I can’t help but wonder “what next”? What about after I have achieved or completed what I want to do? Will there be enough money to successfully do the things I do?  For some reason, the idea of winning the jackpot is rather an uneasy thought for me rather than exciting.  I think I would genuinely struggle to figure out the best and most efficient way to use the money won.  With that said, if I could hit the jackpot with any amount of money, I would want to use it in a way that did not affect my current life in terms of working and being who I am.  I would want to use it in ways where it would allow better comfort in the living standards of my family and myself, use it to help organizations that have potential for growth and to make a difference, and treat it as if it was not a ticket to the “high rolling” life, but remember it is just a lottery ticket that is temporary and fleeting.

I feel that I am still a bit young in my career, and in fact my age to feel that I have difficulty in balancing my work and family.  I also think that as a teacher, we definitely are given the gift of being able to have a schedule that encourages raising a family.  However, I think I can relate to this whole idea of “balancing” your life beyond the classroom and work.  Currently, I am a single, mid-twenties woman who is working as a full-time teacher, studying to receive her master’s degree, and highly involved in many ministry opportunities in my church.  Balancing these three things in my life is probably the most difficult thing I have yet to face when it comes to somehow finding time to have a “social life.” I find it awfully impossible to find time to sit with a friend to catch up, go out for happy hour drinks, or enjoy a late night movie at the theaters with this crazy schedule of mine.  Not only were the last 2 years the busiest years of a teacher’s entire career (building up your lesson plans and techiniques), 24 hours is just not enough hours in a day! Aside from being at work Monday to Friday 8:30AM – 3:30PM, every day between 5:30-9:30PM I have a second schedule to follow.  This would vary between going to class for graduate school or any church ministry related meetings or study gatherings.  During the weekends, we (teachers) are left with piles and piles of work we bring home whether it be grading or planning another exciting hands-on activity to go with our lesson.  And people tell us we must love getting off of work early and not working weekends, right? I also squeeze in a workout everyday somewhere in between.

So where does my personal/social life come in you ask?

For the most part, it is hard to keep up.  But I do use the few hour gaps I have between each day to catch a meal or coffee with friends that I want to catch up with.  Sometimes I get to come home and just talk on the phone or facetime (technology is an amazing thing!) and use that time that way.  Either way, I think that at our age and day, we really need to be intentional to keep ourselves connected with our friends, and in fact, family, and my way of doing this is to use every last minute I have in between my crazy schedule.  Interestingly enough, I am by nature introverted, so this is something that requires quite the effort from me, but I guess it wont be long til I will be getting the hang of teaching, finished with school, and will be able to balance all this better on my plate!

So I took a moment to look up what exactly “elusive” was defined as. “Difficult to find, catch, or achieve.” I don’t know if I would call them goals if I did not have the intention of achieving them, so I will share a little about my long-term goals that I look forward to achieve:

1. To learn to speak and understand Chinese in the next 5 years: Working with an ELL population at my school, 80% being Chinese, I have come up with this goal recently.  I want to be able to speak and communicate with my students to give them a sense of connection within the walls of my classroom.  I noticed immigrant students usually struggle with the major differences of classroom etiquette and how to deal with the different teaching and learning styles of America.  It would be more comforting for these students if they felt that there was a connection between their teacher and themselves.  Currently, I have been asking my students to teach me small snippets of phrases here and there and is used mostly for humor since my inventory of phrases are “This is a zero,” “You are too loud,” and “I don’t like this.” I hope to expand on more constructive sentences and be able to have a short conversation in the near future!

2. To become a teaching mentor: I know teaching is my passion and I want to always teach, but not necessarily high school children all my life.  I want to continue to teach and impact how learning occurs in the everyday classroom.  I would like to believe that I am an innovative instructor who uses creativity and various ways to make my student active participants in their learning experience.  However, I want to raise our futures to become innovative teachers also, allowing for classroom education to become more exciting in the eyes of the students.  I don’t know how much I will be able to accomplish while I am teaching my own classes to be qualified as a mentor, but I hope to strive for the best and then teach the best to be even better 🙂

3. To teach in impoverished countries during summers: As you know I have a heart for the children across seas that have been a victim of human slavery.  I would love to participate in aiding and training teachers across seas to be more readily equipped to raise the future leaders of THEIR country. America is privileged  in so many things including their resources to educate children, it would be amazing to continue to spread the wealth to the less fortunate areas of our world.  With knowledge comes power, right?

This place is Bora Bora, Tahiti. I have known since sophomore year of college this destination was where I was going to go for my honeymoon.  I have been wanting to go Bora Bora so badly that I have it down to the hotel I will be staying at.  Even if it means I need to get married at city hall, I am determined to go to Bora Bora for my honeymoon.

So what fascinates me so much about this place? Honestly, I am not so sure myself.  It all started when a friend of mine who was studying hospitality management was naming the major hotel groups he wanted to ultimately work in.  While researching the different hotels, we landed on the website for Bora Bora and I instantly fell in love.  The blue waters, mountainous landscape, and over-water bungalows.

Interestingly enough, I do not know how to swim, yet I love the water.  I have thought about whether the idea of sleeping above water when I cannot swim frightens me, but for some reason I am more fascinated and drawn to the idea of sleeping on top of a body of waters.  I am also intrigued by the culture there.  I am sure there are many islands out there that is just as beautiful and can offer such accommodations, but I also know that the culture of French Polynesia is somewhere I have yet to venture.  I love the idea of spending a week immersed in a culture I am unfamiliar with, and learning about their food, music, and customs.  I can’t wait to go!

Whenever I think of my teachers in the past, there are always two teachers that come to mind: Ms. Raneri from first grade and Ms. Nelson from fourth grade.  Although both were equally memorable, I’d like to share about Ms. Nelson.

Fourth grade was a very difficult time in my life.  I had moved to Korea to live with my mother and she had enrolled me into a “foreign school.” Foreign schools in Korea are designed for children like myself, who had parents relocate to Korea due to their jobs, but wanted an American education.  The school was built to educated from K-12 and the students take SATs and apply to colleges in the states like we do in any given city in the US. To qualify to enroll in a foreign school, you actually have to be a US citizen, therefore maintaining their mission of delivering American education to Americans outside of United States.  Because I had never left the states ’til then, this was a big transition in my life and I did not know what to expect at this new school.

Ms. Nelson was a young Korean teacher who was adopted into an American family and had returned to the states to try to find our birth mother.  Coincidentally, my first day at SFS (Seoul Foreign School) was also her first day of teaching there.  I remember feeling extremely nervous standing before my classroom door as I tried to understand all the changes that was happening around me.  A new country, new home, new school, and the most frightening of all, new friends.  She greeted me in front of the door as I let go of my mother’s hand and said the most comforting words that I could have heard: “It is my first day today too, I think we will be just fine together.” Immediately I was at ease knowing that I wasn’t the only “new girl” around here.  The rest of my fourth grade is filled with positive memories that I still look back to today.  Ms. Nelson was the most kind-hearted, passionate, and intelligent teacher I had met to date.  She was always encouraging us to read, write, and be expressive in creative ways.  “Reading Time” often meant time we can find our favorite corners and open our sleeping bags and read in comfort and quiet, “Science Expedition” would allow us to go outside and look at various aspects of the nature on school campus, and music time would be filled with sing-a-longs as she strummed away on her guitar.  In her classroom, learning was not only fun, but something that was life-changing.

Maybe that is when I started to aspire to become a teacher. Maybe that is when I built my view on what it looks like for a teacher to be invested in their students.  I can not be sure, but what I do know is this: Ms. Nelson loved being a teacher and loved teaching each and every one of us.  Sadly, I had to return to the states that summer on short notice and never go to say goodbye.  I was already in the states visiting to see my father when my mother decided to move back and told me we were not returning.  I still wonder how she is and if I will ever get to see her again.  I hope our paths cross again in the future.

As much as I love to write and blog, I do not think I could write a book.  However, if I was to be able to write a book and I could write about whatever I want, I think I would choose to write a romance novel.

I want to write a romance novel, but not the cheesy kind.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a lover of romantic comedies and have an ever growing collection of Disney fairy tales, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to finally have a love story that isn’t about the damsel in distress being rescued by prince charming or a too nice and unattractive girl getting the guy at the end because of her impossibly self-sacrificial character.  What if we saw romance in the mind and eyes of the main female character?

Let’s face it; we all know that girls are not as innocent and hands-off when developing a relationship.  We think, we scheme, and then we involve all our friends to help us “play the game.” So what if we had a romance novel that went into the mind of our female character that is developing a relationship with a man of her dreams.  Wouldn’t there be comfort in knowing that the female character actually did something to successfully gain her relationship?  I think it might be encouraging to women to who read this book that this time, the romance that the characters have might actually be attainable and not some fairy tale that “only happens in movies and books.” It’s a refreshing thought, no?

If I were to choose a character, I would be Lily Audrin from “How I Met Your Mother.” If you are unfamiliar with this show, it is about a guy named Ted Mosby who searches for currently EIGHT whole seasons and will into the NINTH season to meet the mother of his children (his future wife).  As much as I am not thrilled that it is already into the 8th season of him meeting woman after woman that is NOT his wife, I am in love with this show for the people around him.  Lily is his best friend and roommate’s college sweetheart turned into wife, and currently they have a son together.

At first I could not think of any character that would be remotely like me because I never tried applying myself to fictional characters.  However, after asking a couple of friends they unanimously chose Lily.  Now that I think about it, Lily and I do, in fact have a  lot in common. Lily is a kindergarten teacher with a great love for children.  She also is the only girl who was raised in Queens from the group and is extremely street smart.  The greatest characteristic of Lily that I thought was parallel to my personality was that Lily is a soft-hearted, yet at the same time very straight forward-tough love.  While she may be a sweet, loving teacher on a normal basis, she will also not allow any disrespect or misbehaving in her classroom.  To her friends, she can be a supportive friend, yet when the truth needs to be told she doesn’t hold back.  Although I hate to admit this, like me, Lily also can take it one step too far at times causing for misunderstandings and hurt feelings.  Lily is great at reading people and their actions.  I am known to have a heightened sense of intuition when it comes to people.  Usually I am able to read a person and their actions like a book and many times I can put together the character and personality of the person after a few hours of interaction.  However, this quality sometimes calls for a misunderstanding as being judgmental, so I tend to not voice my thoughts upon meeting people right away.  The last quality that I find Lily and I have in common is her commitment to her friends and husband.  Like Lily, I’m not one for dating many people and when I do find someone its a serious relationship that is meant to be intentional for a future.  With my various groups of friends, I tend to be the glue that always decides and creates our get-togethers to make sure that we are regularly meeting and up-to-date in each others’ lives.

As much as I didn’t realize it, I guess I can relate to Lily Audrin in many ways.  I never understood why I loved watching this show so much, but now I think it must be because I see myself in Lily. As I write this, I am about to catch up on Season 8 and CANNOT wait to finally find out how Ted meets the mother of his children. (Isn’t 9 seasons a little ridiculous??)

I feel that my first post was an introduction to what my passions are.  My passion is to work with children (the youth).  Becoming a teacher was just one of the many ways I figured I would be able to interact with children and teenagers and be able to work with their needs.  As my first post suggests, I do not intend to use my career as the only route and method to work with our world’s future leaders.

Instead of going on more about what my passions are, I thought I might share the root of my passions.  When I reflect back to my high school years, I wish I had a teacher that I could have confided in and that could have helped me figure out who I was.  I was in need of direction and understanding what deciding my future entailed.  Being a part of a small school of only 250 students in my graduating class, you would think that I would have been able to built many personal connections with my teachers, but it was quite the contrary.  Being in a small school, I found myself more cautious of my actions and working to maintain the “know-it-all and have-it-all-together” that I put on myself.  I could not imagine the idea of revealing my disorganized and confused concern for my future.  Also I had the most unhelpful guidance counselor I have seen yet to date.  Not to go into details of her incompetence, but she left our school my senior year in November, when it is the high season of college applications.  As a senior who was graduating with almost no help and guidance and after witnessing the difference it makes when you have a good foundational education from high school, I was determined I wanted to become a teacher.  Not any teacher, but one that will be effective to my students inside and outside my classroom walls.  If I can help one more student that might be walking the same shoes that I was when I was in high school and help guide them to make more successful and self-desiring choices about their future, that is all I can ask for.

I think this desire to be influenced and connected with the educators around me has ultimately brought the passions I hold today to my heart.  The desire to help those who are in need, whether that is financial, social, of physical, and to be an educator, mentor, and adult that is able to shine light into the confused minds of our youth today.

I was always that child that wanted to become everything and anything.  As a child I wanted to be a nurse, artist, chef, actor, singer, doctor, lawyer, FBI agent, homemaker, Preschool teacher, and many more that I cannot recollect anymore.  I think you get the point: I wanted to be everything I could become.  As I look into the careers that interested me, there is an common factor in all of them: they all work with helping or bringing joy to people one way or another.  The biggest reason I wanted to become a teacher and decided to become one also relies in the fact that I wanted to be an educator that influenced the lives of struggling teenagers within and outside my classroom walls.  So if I were to ponder on what I would want to be if I wasn’t a teacher, I still find myself listing a million things that I aspire to be.

However, there is one thing that I think currently, as a professional in her 20s, would want to do: travel the world while working. To be more specific, work with building better orphanage systems in impoverished countries.  I have always had a desire to work with children and especially those that are in need.  Working in Brooklyn my first few years of teaching has also allowed me to see the needs of children in homes that are not exactly the most ideal.  Upon researching about foster care systems and orphanage systems, it is my personal belief that with the right amount of educational and financial support, orphanages that take on full care-taker responsibilities (including the child’s education) for their entire childhood raise more successful children than those who may be tossed around in foster care systems.  With that said, I would like to be able to work to build a lasting, supportive system that also provides good educational support for their children.

One specific place that I would like to do this in is Thailand. Thailand does not have a good political system to protect their children and the human trafficking of these children are a common sight.  Many times these children are rescued by various organizations that are linked to orphanages that they are sent to for care, but due to lacking educational background and support, children are either left with poor life skills to continue to survive or left with frustration from not being able to catch up to the learning skill level of their peers.  These endangered children are the future leaders of their country, yet the proper support to protect them is frighteningly scarce.  I never thought I’d find myself wanting to advocate endangered children of other countries, but my love for traveling seems to match perfectly with my desire to work with orphans, and I hope to be able to pursue at least part of my dream (alongside my teaching career) as I grow older!