Summer.

First of all, I'm writing this from the tub. Don't worry, I have it down to a careful science. The nice thing about having a tiny bathroom is that you can sit in the bathtub and use the (closed...obviously) toilet as a desk. Nice, huh? Anyway, enough for that TMI. How do I have the luxury of blogging from the bathtub in the middle of the week? Because it is SUMMER, people! Today was the last day of my first year at VOICE Charter School. Whew, that feels good!

My last day started with a staff meeting where our principal passed out a Huffington Post article called A Letter to My In-Transition Self. It was full of beautiful insights about life in transition and I felt full of nostalgia thinking back to this exact time last year. I was living in Texas, days away from marrying Braden and weeks away from moving to New York City and starting a new job. Talk about transitions! When I started working at VOICE, I had many of those "We're not in Kansas anymore" moments.  It is a challenging workplace to say the least. The kiddos at VOICE need so much support emotionally, socially, and behaviorally. There were so many days that I felt hopeless, unsure of how to help the child sitting across from me. I didn't feel like I was producing results and it made me feel like a failure. A huge lesson I learned from my co-social workers this year is that sometimes the thing people need the most is just someone to bear witness to their story. We don't have offer a solution for every problem we encounter. The Huffington Post article says, "Who you are is actually completely separate from what you produce." What a relief to hear those words. Another favorite from the article-- " Remember that shame is the false belief that you Should Have Already Mastered Everything. It's a lie." Thank goodness it is okay not to have mastered everything. I feel proud for completing my first year at VOICE and look forward to growing as a school social worker throughout future years. 

Tyler and I went from in-laws to co-workers this year! This was on our second-to-last day of the school year. 

 Every class at VOICE has a weekly 45 minute lesson with a social worker (there are 3 of us) called "Mind, Body, and Heart." I taught 1st and 2nd grade this year. These are self-portraits my 2nd graders made as part of our "self" unit. Underneath their portraits are character traits that describe who they are on the inside. I love how they turned out!

And now for SUMMER! Here's a little preview of what I'll be up to over the next 7 weeks:
-Trip to Kentucky for Kristin's wedding
-1year anniversary getaway with the husband (Can you believe it??)
-Trip to Missouri to visit my grandmother
-Trip to Rhode Island for a wedding shower for Braden's cousin
-Trip to Michigan to spend time at a lake house with Braden's college buddies (I'll be the only girl!)
-Trip to another part of Michigan for a family reunion with Braden's family
-Trip to Ohio for Braden's college roommate's wedding

That's 5 states on the calendar so far! I may have freaked out a little when I realized how much traveling we have committed to, but I keep reminding myself that this is my summer. Summer does not only exist on empty calendar days! I'll leave you with one more quote from the Huffington Post article.

"Consider that the in-between is just as important as Point A and Point B. Sometimes you believe that the space between things is not life, but it is life. If you look closely enough, you will see that absolutely everything is comprised of the in-between."