Quick update

I haven't been able to post much lately due to a crazy schedule at work as most of my friends and a few of my more astute readers know (I have 12 kindergartners, 1 first grader, 4 second graders, and 2 third graders in one class all day - most of whom are special needs and several who are major behavior issues...).  However, today my reprieve has arrived...well, she's (he's?) almost arrived...

Monday they got funding to hire another teacher - I was out sick so I didn't know this, but TODAY they position actually posted so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE join me in praying that a fantastic applicant will interview and fill the position so that these special needs students can get more of the individual attention they need and deserve.  I hate having this many students who need so much because I feel completely unable to give them each the attention they should have. I'm constantly putting out fires (figuratively, not literally -- yet) and have been unable to, in my opinion, academically reach the students on the level to which they need.  I go home feeling ineffective and frustrated.

There is a light at the tunnel!  It will take several days, perhaps even a week or two, but help is on it's way!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for my county.  I have a love/hate relationship with this day.  It's a great fresh new start...but it means saying goodbye to sleeping in and a whopping 180 school days until summer vacation!

The things I love about the first day of school:

• freshly sharpened pencils and other school supplies
• clean never used notebooks
• kids wearing their cutest new school clothes
• I get to wear my cute new school clothes
• desks aligned just so (not necessarily in rows, but still all in order)
• cute bulletin boards
• high expectations for a great year
• ideas for new curriculum, behavior management, and/or activites and lesson plans
• it's easier to stick to a healthy eating plan because I pack only good-for-me foods and don't give candy/food rewards to my students
• my classroom library is still organized
• seeing the kids smiling faces
• all the parents still think you are a fantastic teacher

Because tomorrow is 10 on 10, I took a few pictures of today so that I can share them tomorrow :)

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Back to school

Well I am officially back to school!  The kids don't come in until next Monday but all of us teachers have been there bright and early every day this week setting up our classrooms, making sure we have all of our student's textbooks (and the teacher's editions that go with them), and all going to all of the boring informative meetings that we have to attend.

This year I've decided to do a red, white, and blue theme in my classroom.  I will actually have a real class so I need to do more than just general bulletin boards.  Because I teach special education and I generally do inclusion, I didn't use my own classroom often.  This year however, due to the Class Size Reduction Amendment, my school is doing things a bit differently and I will have a class of 18 second and third graders (some of them Ex. Ed. and some of them General Ed).  It will be a challenging year, but hey, if I can run a marathon... I can do this!

The biggest problem is trying to find a time to run.  Early morning runs were my preference all summer, however, now that I have to drop off Baby Girl then be at work (a 20 minute drive) by 7:00am every day, an early morning run just isn't feasible.  On the other hand, I get off at 3:00pm.  However, this is FLORIDA!  Florida this time of year is excruciatingly hot and humid.  With 90+ degrees and humidity that make the temperature well like over 100, running after I get off of work isn't a great idea either.  I don't have a hydration belt (yeah, I need to get a good one that doesn't jiggle and annoy me as I run - suggestions?) so running too far/long is not a safe option.  Hubby is working nights at the moment so running in the evening once it cools down isn't great either because by the time it cools down enough, it is too late.  I would have to take Baby Girl with me in the stroller and it would put her getting her bath and going to bed too late.

Saturdays are no problem as I can still get up early and run with Baby Girl in the stroller, but that is about the only day that I have a fool-proof running solution.

I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, and that is exactly what it is.  However, I feel they are some valid excuses.  Other than obviously getting a hydration belt, what would you do if you were in this situation? It's not going to cool down for a good while down here...

E-mail to the House Reps, the Govenor, and anyone else who will listen!

I am a teacher in Florida.
I am a damn good teacher in Florida.

I am a damn good Exceptional Student Education teacher in Florida.

I am a damn good Exceptional Student Education teacher in a low-socioeconomic area of Florida.

I am a damn good Exceptional Student Education teacher in a low-socioeconomic area of Florida who will likely lose my job if SB 6/HB 7189 passes.

I will either lose my job or be forced to change jobs and work at a different school just so that I can survive.

I will not lose my job because of something that I will do, or not do. I will lose my job because my students are unfairly asked to do the impossible, and many are not be able to.

My students do not perform on grade level. This is why they are part of the exceptional student education program. If they could perform on grade level, they would not need the ESE program. I work hard to get my students on grade level and out of the program, but unfortunately, many will never be able to make it to that point. They start off the school year sometimes multiple years behind their classmates, struggle all year to lean basic skills that come easily for their classmates to learn, then are expected to take and pass the same test as their classmates at the end of the year. (Yes, some of them may have extra time to complete the FCAT, but not extra time to prepare for the test to make up for taking longer to learn or being behind to start with due to their disability.)

On top of having a documented learning disability, because of the low-socioeconomic culture that my students live in, many do not have the background knowledge that is so important for learning. Imagine living only 3 miles from the beach but having never seen the ocean; having never traveled outside the neighborhood much less the town, county, or state. All they know is survival; survival that must come before education. Their parents don’t value education because they are so focused on finding work and keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table. The children often have to go days without food, stay in houses with no lights, babysit younger children, or care for the elderly. Many live in cars, or if they are lucky, a room at the Motel 8 that they must share with mom, dad, and several brothers and sisters. I have had many students in the past who have had to miss school to take care of a younger child when the parent couldn’t find childcare. One of my students this year missed nearly a week and a half because she had to take care of her aging grandmother; she is only in the 2nd grade. Many of my students are afraid of what will happen tomorrow. It is a struggle for them to just make it to school each day. It is very difficult to teach a child who is afraid, yet that is what I do on a daily basis. It is difficult for a child to make up missing days but that is what we are faced with.

Many of my students have yet another hurdle in their education. Some also have emotional and/or behavioral disorders which prevent them from learning to their full potential. With these students we as teachers must first focus on the out of control, and often highly dangerous, behaviors of the child first, and slip in academics as often as possible. Students cannot learn if they, or one of their classmates, are throwing chairs, cursing at the teachers, starting fights, or trying to run away.

With all these hurdles it is amazing that any of my students succeed. I push and encourage my students daily to do their best and to learn as much as they can. However, their best does not always match up to “regular” students. Is this their fault? NO! Is it my fault? NO! It is no one’s fault, it is only the reality of the situation.

Imagine for a minute that you were born without a leg (a learning disability). You cannot afford to buy a decent prosthetic leg and must make do with an ill-fitting crumbling hand-me-down (poverty). Now, imagine that you must run a marathon (the school year and the FCAT). Because of your leg slowing you down, you arrive at the starting line late and everyone else has already started and many are miles ahead of you (being below grade level to begin with). How do you feel? Are you terrified? Are you nervous? Do you feel inadequate when looking at the able-bodied athletes? Do you think that this is a good attitude to have to begin with? You know that your coach has done everything that he can to prepare you; you’ve done numerous drills, sprints, and endurance runs, but is it going to be enough? Let’s go a step further; any athlete knows that the home court advantage is really about having the fan’s cheering you on. Imagine that while you are running this grueling trek, your family (the most important people in your life) isn’t there to cheer you on because they have to work, don’t understand how important it is to you, or just can’t be bothered. Now imagine that your coach will lose his job if you do not finish in the top 50%. Just crossing the finish line isn’t enough, you have to excel or your coach will pay the price. How is this fair to you or your coach?

How is what this legislation is trying to do fair to our students or their teachers? (By the way, ALL finishers in an actual marathon receive a metal, even the last one to cross the finish line. The last ones across the line often receive the loudest cheers as they finish because the spectators know that these athletes have struggled the hardest and applaud thier persistance to get to the finish line. Shouldn’t we do this for our struggling students as well?)

I hear all the time that parents and taxpayers complain that teachers are doing nothing but teaching to the test because of FCAT and school grades. How does tying teacher’s pay into the test solve this problem? All I can see happening is making it worse. Teachers will thenthemselves fly into survival mode and teach to the test to insure that their students do well on this one assessment.  Good teachers will leave the profession or flee to higher performing schools leaving the low-socioeconomic schools with the “left-overs.” To me, this seems like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Our children are our future. Please, take a step back and take a good look at what you are doing to our future.

Basing teacher's pay on things that are completely out of their control is not the solution to a failing educational system. Yes, some things need to be fixed within the educational system, but this is not the solution. In fact, it will only cause more problems in the future.

Tuesday Teaser

Well, I'm crashing. Last week at this time I was jonesing, then I got my books and I was on a high again, now I'm done with the series and I'm crashing :( Now what? LOL I feel so lost! I guess I could head over to Stephanie Meyer's website and read all the outtakes and the first few chapters of her unfinished book Midnight Sun that some inconsiderate fool put out on the web before she was ready for it to be published (She is now unsure if she will ever finish it, but knows that curiosity will kill the cat so re-published the already leaked portions on her webpage).

Just before I finished reading the final book, I saw Lisa in the hallway.

me: "A ___________?!?!? What is that all about??" (not wanting to give away too much here >wink<)
her: "haha! You're already to that point?"
me: Laughing "Yeah, you sucked me in, it's all your fault, ya know."
her: "Yep! Has ________ left yet?" (Again, not spoiling it all here)
me: Frowning "Yes"
her: giggle
me: "It's killing me to not ask you what's going on with that."
her: "I wouldn't tell you anyway, Mrs. A!"

UGH, I've taught her too well! :)

Here are the teasers for the 3rd and 4th books in the Twilight Series.

From page 377 of Eclipse:

" She looked right at me as soon as I called her name, despite the thudding bass that should have drowned my voice. I waved eagerly, and watched her face as she took in the three werewolves leaning over me."


From page 376 of Breaking Dawn:

"The fire blazed hotter and I wanted to scream. To beg for someone to kill me now before I lived one more second in this pain. But I couldn't move my lips."

To see my review of the move based on Twilight, go here. Careful though, there are spoilers!!

Death by Testing

Everyone hates taking tests. I don't know a singer person who wakes up in the morning and says, "YAY! It's TEST DAY!" or anyone who thinks, "Hmmm I'm bored, why don't I go take a test?" It just isn't done.

Yes, testing is a necessary evil, I know. As a teacher I test for many reasons. I may test as a placement tool to see where to begin instruction. I may test for achievement reasons to see how much growth a student has made. Or I may give a diagnostic test to see what is going on and what I need to do or change to better help a child. Lots of testing going on in schools.

But how much is too much? This week alone, my 6th graders had a test EVERY DAY! All this testing wasn't because they have a mean 'ol teacher either. Because this mean 'ol teacher didn't want to give about 1/2 of them and won't even see the results of many of them. Let me list the tests:
Monday - Selection Reading test (graded, on the story and skills we finished and reviewed for on Friday- instructed to be given and scores are recorded and sent to the principal on a weekly basis)
Tuesday - District Writing test (If I'm lucky I may get these scores back in a few weeks but rarely get to actually see what the kids wrote)
Wednesday- End of the unit Math test
Thursday-Vocabulary and Spelling Test (done on Thursdays now due to the Friday Weekly tests that are required every week)
Friday- Reading Weekly Test, Math Weekly Test (These are tests provided by the school, that cover random "grade level" skills that may or may not have been covered in class and we may never see the results of these tests or at best we will see an average of the grades in a month or so at our grade level meetings)

I really can't blame my kids for shutting down. As an adult, I would have a hard time with a test every day...now imagine you are a child with a learning or emotional disability, and most of the testing material is over your head to begin with because you are below grade level due to your disability. When is enough really enough?

I don't remember being tested to death as a child and I turned out OK. Am I preparing my students to be lifelong learners and successful members of society, or am I preparing them to be good test-takers? I often wonder...

Sidiki Conde

Today my school had a very special treat... SIDIKI CONDE! Who is Sidiki Conde you may ask (I know I did). Sidiki is a dancer, singer, and musician from Africa. However, unlike most dancers (and singers and musicians too), Sidiki contracted Polio and lost the use of his legs at the age of 14.


Polio, or any contagious disease, was considered to be bad luck so Sidiki had to go live with his grandfather in a remote village in Western Africa. Upset by the fact that he wasn't going to be able to participate in the Coming of Age Ceremonies if he couldn't dance, he taught himself to dance ON HIS HANDS! Since then, he has formed a group called Tokounou All Abilities Group that travels around the world singing, dancing, and playing music for children and adults encouraging them to overcome any adversity life throws at you.


His performance was nothing short of AMAZING! I have never in my life seen someone so truly happy with how they are despite what could have been a debilitating disability. He spoke to the students about loving yourself the way you are and not giving up on your dreams just because people think you can't accomplish them.


The translations of two of his songs particularly hit me and I'd like to share them with you.


“Dounougna”

In this world we are many different people We are fine
Some people have no eyes, we are fine
Some people have no ears, we are fine
Some people have no voice, we are fine
Some people have no legs, we are fine
Some people have nothing
Some people have everything
We are fine.



“N’na”(Mother)

I know you carried me twice:
Once when I was a baby
and again when I could not walk
Thank you Mother
Mother do not cry and do not worry
I am going to make you happy
I am not handicapped
Handicapped is in the mind I can sing and I can dance

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day, but apparently, it is also Take a Vet to School Day... so I did just that, and took Hubby to work with me! He graciously agreed to come to school and talk to our three 6th grade classes about his time in the military. He put together some slide shows of various pictures of places he has been; the Middle East, Greece, El Salvador for example. He told them all of how he signed up when he was 18, went to bootcamp and other trainings in TX and CA before being sent to his first duty station in Japan.

They were fascinated by his time recently in the Middle East, or at least what he told them of it. Thankfully he left out many of the less pleasant details of the area while still impressing upon them the seriousness of what is going on over there. He took some Iraqi money, some money from the United Arab Nations, as well as some Bahrain money and his plates from his vest to show just how heavy they are.

He also showed them pictures of his most recent 6 month deployment to El Salvador. My school is in a low socio-economic area and they don't always seem to appreciate what they do have. That is, until Hubby showed them pictures of the public school in El Salvador with no glass in the windows, no AC, and no fans. The cafeteria is a wood burning stove outside with a few picnic tables and their bathrooms are also little more than outhouses missing 1/2 the roof.

Some tough questions were asked such as "Have you ever killed anyone?" and "Do you know anyone who has died?" The true answer to both of those is "yes, unfortunately" and he answered them very diplomatically without romanticizing war or killing and even put it back on them. When the question of "Have you killed anyone" was asked, he asked them why it was important to know. They all agreed eventually that it wasn't important to know and it isn't a fun thing to have to do even when you have to do it to save yourself or others.

I'm very proud of my husband and what he has done, as I am proud of all of the men and women serving our country. My brother is currently in Navy bootcamp. My father was in Vietnam. I have 2 uncles in the Air Force. One of my grandfathers was in the Navy. One of my husband's grandfather's was in the Air Force and the other was in the Navy. I have many many friends who are currently in the military. God Bless you all!!

Read the history of Veteran's Day here.

History

I love teachable moments.

Teachable moments are those moments where you don't plan on something increadible happening, but it does and it leads the class on an awesome discusion or discovery that otherwise might never have occured.

This election has done so. History was made. Although, if you think about it, if McCain had won, history still would have been made with the first female Vice President!

Our school gets a boatloa of newspapers everyday for anyone to use/read. Often a class will take a whole stack and do some activity but more often it is just the teachers taking a newspaper to read throughout the day. My coteacher and I grabbed a large stack today that had the "OBAMA WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION" headline and passed them out to our class. We talked about the importance of this election and no matter who we/you/I thought should have won, history was made and that this could be a very important event that years later our children may ask us about.

We led them on a newspaper scavenger hunt to find out how many popular and electorial votes each candidate got, found a quote from each candidate, how many electorial votes Florida controls, an article in the local section about the election, and various other things. At the end, we told them that they might want to hang on to their newspapers as it is possible that years from now it may be worth something, and if nothing else, it will remind them of the importance of voting.

Tuesday Teaser (on Wednesday!!)

Even though I have homework, I still find ways to sneak in "me time" now and then!

I'm still working on making my way through Brisingr and The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide For Women and since I've already "teased" these books, the only other book I'm reading is my textbook. sigh. I'm sure it's not the most interesting book in the world but I have to admit it is WAY better than the research class I just finished!

So today's 2 sentence teaser may not interest too many people but it is relevant to my life as a Special Education teacher. From page 146 of Understanding Reading Problems: Assessment and Instruction (7th ed.) by J.W. Gillet, C. Temple, and A. Crawford,

"Second, formal reading tests typically do not assess reading in authentic ways. In real life, comprehension is often demonstrated by doing something with the information that is gained."

Even though we aren't at this point in the book yet, I couldn't agree with this statement more! When I read, I read for enjoyment most of the time, however, when I read for information, it is because I am going to DO something with the information. Only in school do I ever read something because I know that I will have to answer questions about it.

Also, in real life, if I am reading for information, I don't have a time limit on it. I can take my time, read slowly and re-read if I need to for clarification. Children who are being tested don't have that luxury, well most don't anyway. Unless a child has an IEP or a 504 plan due to some disability or medical issue with testing accommodations, he or she has to read the passage and answer questions within a limited amount of time. Even in college, I rarely had a real time limit that was measured in minutes rather than days. The information was to be read prior to going to sit for the test rather than having to read cold (new) material during the testing.

What are we doing to our kids? Are we actually preparing them for adulthood and life after school, or are we just collecting test data? Thoughts??

The day I cried

Yes, I cried today. I didn't mean to cry, it wasn't planned, but I am not ashamed of it. My co-teacher and I both cried in front of a classroom full of wide-eyed 6th graders, and for me at least, it wasn't the first time I cried in front of a room full of sixth grade students.

If you look at the date, you probably know what made us cry, it's 9/11, seven years after the terror attacks.

This morning, My co-teacher Jonathon and I began retelling the events that took place in New York, Washington, and PA that day. He was in California at the time and I was in SW Florida. The kids were amazed to see how it affected everyone across the nation in much the same way, even if we didn't know someone who was actually in one of the four planes, the towers, or the pentagon that day. They of course, were too little to remember much of anything about what happened that day other than what people have told them and had many questions. Many didn't realize that there were actually four planes, not just the two that hit the towers. Other's didn't realize that their were passengers on the planes or that some people were able to make phone calls to loved ones before the unthinkable happened. They didn't know that brave firefighters and police risked their lives to help save others whom they didn't even know, or that we all banded together as a nation and waved flags, cheered our heroes, and mourned our dead.

It is interesting to note that in 2001 on September 11th, I was teaching a 6th grade class and here I am 7 years later in front of another 6h grade class telling them about that day. Everyone always says you will remember exactly where you were when you heard the news and I am sure that is true for those of us who lived it that day. I was standing at my classroom door welcoming my homeroom students to another wonderful day of middle school when a colleague came up to me and told me to turn on the TV, that an airplane had just crashed into one of the twin towers. I turned around and turned on the TV that usually just showed the morning announcements. I didn't have to look for a station that was showing it, they were all showing it. Replaying it again and again and the reporters were trying to figure out what was going on when suddenly behind them, a second plane hit the second tower.

I remember feeling such shock, fear, and confusion as I tried to work it out in my own head what was happening all the while knowing that I was responsible for the 6th graders in my room. I knew I couldn't lose it, but honestly, I was in too much shock to "lose it," I just stared at the screen now replaying the second crash. I didn't know if I really wanted the kids to see this, but I couldn't turn it off either.

I'm not sure that the kids really completely got it at first, so two planes just hit a building on the other side of the country...big deal. Some of them though, noticed me and commented that I looked scared or pale. Homeroom was only about 20 minutes long normally, just long enough to get any announcements or details of the day worked out prior to starting the school day. We didn't change classes for a while on that day. I think every TV in the school was on and every student, teacher, custodian, cafeteria worker, and everyone else stopped as we watched in shock as a third plane hit the pentagon then later reports of a fourth plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field.

Personally, I was running a list of everyone I knew through my head. Did I know where everyone was? Could any of them be in New York or Washington? What about on those planes, or another plane? Where were my friends from high school and college that I had lost contact with? Where were my friends in the military? Faces and names whirled through my head and my heart, but somehow I was able to keep it together for my students, although, that was the first day that 6th graders saw me cry.

I am not ashamed to say that thinking of those events still gets to me seven years later. The terror that I felt that day had to be nothing compared to those on the planes, in the towers and the pentagon, and those nearby. I ask myself if I would have been strong enough and brave enough to stand up to terrorist and face my own death to help crash a plane that I knew was about to crash into another unknown American building and kill and injure passably thousands more. Could I have run into a falling building to save people I didn't even know? I don't know. I hope I could have the faith and inner strength to do it, but I just don't know. I am thankful that God has placed people strong enough to do that on this earth. All I knew at that moment was a strong sense to hug every one of those confused sixth graders in my care, for my sake as much as theirs.

RUNRAVEL

As a Special Education teacher, I often see students who struggle with longer reading passages which have comprehension questions which they must answer. Students who struggle with the very act of reading don't know how to attack a passage and be successful with it. Here is a strategy called RUNRAVEL that I have used with both special education students as well as basic ed. students:

R read through the questions first.
U underline the title and look at the pictures.
N now predict.
R run through and number the paragraphs.
A are the important words circled?
V venture through the story.
E eliminate obvious wrong answers.
L let's prove our answers.

The first things the students need to do is to flip to the back and read the questions first. The main reasons they need to read the questions before ever reading the story is so that they know what to look for while reading. Good readers attack reading differently when they are reading for pleasure than when they are reading for information. If you are reading for information, you need to know what information it is that you are looking for. Reading the questions first will let the students know what information they will need in order to answer the questions.

After they have read the questions, students underline the title. This is mainly to get the students to actually read the title. Many times students jump right into the story and never even look at the title which often gives many clues to what the story is about. After they have read and underlined the title, they quickly flip through and look at all the pictures.

The title and the pictures should give them plenty of info to make a prediction on what they think the story will be about. This can be done either orally, written in the margin or however you want. Predicting is an important skill that students will need to know how to do as they progress through school.

The students should number the paragraphs so that later on when they are proving their answers, they can quickly and easily list what paragraph they found the answer in.

Important words can be names, dates, numbers, places, etc. that seem like they may be important in the story. Students should quickly skim and either circle or underline words that they think may be important. Often students need to be taught how to skim because they don't know how to quickly run their eyes over a passage without actually (slowly) reading it. As with predicting, this will get the student's brain ready to read.

When students venture through the passage, they actually read it. Rather than jumping right to this step, all the previous steps makes students slow down a bit and prepares their brain to comprehend what they are reading.

After they have finally read the passage, as they are answering questions, students should be taught how to identify and "throw out" any obvious wring answers. For example, in a multiple choice question, there are typically 1 or 2 answer choices that are way off base. If students can mentally toss those out, they are left with only two possible answers leaving them a better chance of figuring out the correct one.

Proving answers means the students go back into the story and actually FIND the answers rather than guess at answers they think they remember. The answer, or the clues used to come up with the answer can be underlined in the text with the question number circled next to it. The paragraph number can be placed next to the question so that you can easily find their proof. By making them prove their answers, they are less likely to get questions wrong, and you can easily see why they may have chosen the answer that they did.

This strategy has worked very well for students of all abilities and walks of life. It has worked so well that I thought I would pass it along to anyone who may be interested in helping a child with reading homework!

Things I wish I knew when I was 18 - for my brother, Mike

My little brother is graduating High School in a couple of days and it has me thinking about my own High School graduation and the years that followed. Like all 18 year olds, I made mistakes and didn't listen to those who were "old" and "didn't understand." In fact, I probably would have rolled my eyes, put my hand up ("talk to the hand") and walked away. After all, I was an adult, and I knew everything, right?

Mike, I know I'm just your crazy older sister, but I love you very much and I am proud of who you have become. I've seen you make mistakes and I've seen you accomplish some amazing things as well. I have no doubt that you will grow to be an amazing man, and a proud US Sailor. Not all of these tid bits of advice are directly aimed at you, they are just musings of my past, but I hope you can find some wisdom in them somewhere and know that I am always here for you no matter what this crazy world brings you. I love you!
~Love, Sis

Things I wish I had known when I was 18

1. A credit card is not free money! I got my first American Express right before I turned 19 and I think I am still working on paying off that $2 hairbrush I bought! Interest adds up and the bills don't go away if you ignore the bill you get in the mail (and the phone calls). It only gets worse and more expensive. If you can't pay for it with cash, don't get it. If it is worth having, it is worth saving for! Also, paying the minimum amount due isn't good either. It's better than not paying it at all, but if you don't want to pay 3 X's as much in interest, pay more than the minimum and pay it off as soon as you can.

2. Travel now! Don't think that because you are young you can't travel. Now is the time to travel while you aren't tied down to a house payment, kids, loans, etc. Not that having a house and a family is bad, just that you can't up and leave on an awesome trip without a lot of preplanning and getting things ready. Instead of packing a bag and heading out the door, you will have to arrange for bills to be paid, mail to be forwarded, kids/pets to be cared for, leases and contracts canceled, and convincing people that you haven't lost your mind.

3. Follow your dreams! Follow what your heart tells you, not what other people expect you to do with your life. Take that photography class, take up the drums, or train to run a marathon (trust me; doing it later in life is rough!). Sure, only one in a million starving artist ever become more than starving, but it's better to be a happy starving artist than a miserable corporate working stiff if an artist is what you want to try. The worst thing that can happen is that you realize your dreams aren't all they are cracked up to be and you start having new dreams. Knowing that you tried for your dream is better than living the rest of your life wondering "what if..."

4. Lose the safety net. As much as you love your parents, they won't always be there to hold your hand and clean up after you. You need to start taking your responsibilities seriously and learn how to do things and take care of things for yourself. Yes, the thought of being out there on your own, in the wild blue yonder without something to catch you if it all goes wrong may make you feel like your stomach is doing somersaults, but trust me, it will be OK.

5. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are how people learn the best lessons about life. You live, you learn, you get on with your life and are better for the lesson you learned. Just be careful not to repeat your mistakes.

6. Don't worry about finding Mr./Ms. Perfect. Instead of trying to find someone who is amazing, BE amazing. Do things to better yourself that makes you feel good. Don't try to be someone you aren't to make someone fall for you because it won't work. You always end up being yourself and if the person you are with didn't fall in love with the "real" you, the relationship isn't worth it anyway.

7. Sometimes life isn't fair – get over it! Yeah at 18 I thought "I'm an adult, no one can make me do anything I don't want to do." Yes, at 18 in the eyes of the government, you are an adult. But with the freedoms of being an adult come responsibilities too. You aren't a child anymore so don't act like one if you don't want to be treated like one.

8. Make your own path. Don't take the road someone else wants to take if it doesn't seem right for you, even if it is going to the same place. You may wish to take a longer, more scenic route instead of rushing straight to your destination on the highway. Make a few pit stops along the way if you want!

9. Don't stop swimming (or running or doing whatever activity you love to do). In High School, swimming was my life. I never felt freer than when I was in the pool. College came and I slowly found other things to do that filled up my time and I slowly stopped swimming. It wasn't until a few years ago that I really got back in the pool again and I have again found the thing that makes me happy, peaceful, and centered. Not to mention the health benefits of staying in shape!

10. My parents are not controlling, stupid old people. In fact they are all loving, caring, wonderful (although a little wacky) people. I am lucky enough to have not only one set of parents, but two. One set who gave birth to me and made the most difficult choice in their life for me, and my adopted parents who chose me and took me into their home when they didn't have to do so. They seemed controlling to me only because they were scared for me and wanted to see me on the right path. They may have been ignorant of a lot of things that was going on in my life, but that was only because I didn't tell them what was going on, and they are by no means stupid. And...uh...they weren't that old when I was 18! haha :)

PS...Tequila is bad bad bad haha :) I'll leave it at that! ;)