What IS hermitude?

Basically.

I get really mad at my students when they don't have high expectations for themselves.  I get frustrated when they don't want better things for themselves than I want for them.  We start testing tomorrow.  This topic is about worn out for me.

I've been re-evaluating my life for a while.  That was supposed to be one of the goals of this blog (which I have neglected, but am now returning to with open arms).  After all, how can I have high expectations if I don't have the balls (sorry mom) to have high expectations for myself?

For a while, my life was defined by *attempts* at weight loss, and how I felt about my body after being a decently fit softball player with super fit arms and legs who eventually downgraded into flab-where-your-pitching-muscles-used-to-be.  While I still weighed less than I did at high school graduation, my goal over the last two years has been to bring that back down and to generally be fit.  After plateauing roughly thirty pounds above my initial weight goal (which has since lowered) for about a year, I got fed up.

I'm a really stubborn person.

I'm also a bit adventurous for the supposed hermit that I am.

By which I mean-- I tend to challenge myself.  I set goals, and, due to my stubborn genes, I accomplish almost all of them.  This has led to a few changes in my life lately.

One- Because of a whim of a lunch date with the fabulous Lauren, I ended up in a discussion about grad school/what we want to do with our lives.  I have been considering a Master's in Library Sciences for about a year and a half, but am TERRIFIED.  No really.  TERRIFIED of the GRE.  I went home after lunch and, crying the whole way, signed up for the GRE.  I take it in two-ish weeks.  Pray, y'all.

Two- I am almost all the way done with my application to grad school.  If all goes according to plan, which my stubborn self tends to make happen, I *should* have my degree in less than three years.  Super exciting.

Three-  I am going to California this summer, which actually has nothing to do with ambition, but I thought it might be important information and may lead into a later point.

Four- (Enter disappointment with weight loss) I saw this video from http://www.onehundreddays.org/ about a girl who made the commitment to work out for one hundred days.  Basically, the website encourages you to practice something for one hundred days to see how much humans are actually capable of accomplishing when they've set a goal and legitimately commit time to it.  This led to a deep thought process culminating in----- giving up carbs for one hundred days?

Yeah.  That's happening.  I haven't had bread in almost three weeks.  This is for real.  My first day of eating carbs again will be on my birthday.  I have a countdown on my phone.  So far, I feel great.  It is, however, challenging.  Especially if you know my family.  Especially if you know my family LITERALLY has pizza night once every two weeks at the minimum, and we also have an extreme affinity for Mexican and Italian foods. Basically I'm eating vegetable pasta.

Five- (Enter possible application of California trip point) I have also decided to... backpack Europe.  No hiking.  I'm not that crazy.  But I am planning on essentially taking a train from Barcelona all over Western Europe and ending in my wish-it-was-home-land, Ireland/also the UK.

My mother is literally going to kill me.

She threatened to put a tracking device in my neck like a dog.  Seriously.  Direct quote- "When they scan her, they'll know she's mine."

I believe that these are all of my huge announcements.  I think that, slowly, this blog will become more about my personal journeys rather than teaching.  Don't get me wrong, my students are hilarious, but they make it hard to blog about them.  I will, occasionally, leave quotes or tell a good story.  I'll leave you with this.

Student One "Oh, her?  I made her eat rocks once."
Student Two "What? How did that even work?"
Student One "She painted my nails the wrong color, and we were best friends then.  So I grabbed a handful of rocks and shoved them in her mouth and held her mouth closed til she swallowed them."

Gems, I tell you.