It is high time that a plan was laid out for when I'm going to grow up, so I sat down with Kyle and we figured it out.

Until last weekend I was going to spend fall 2008 and spring 2009 taking classes, and then I would student teach in fall 2009, and graduate either at the end of fall 2009, or take an additional semester of classes and graduate at the end of spring 2010 - depending on when I could get a job.  A lot of schools only hire in the fall, so if I was just going to sit around unemployed for all of spring 2010 we decided I may as well take some additional classes.  That plan would have put me in the real world starting fall 2010.   And for Kyle that plan would have meant working for 2 more years at a job he rightfully hates so I could go to school.  Well...that all ended last weekend...

It all started because I ended up not going to Rome.  See, I had planned on going to Rome and taking classes there for a month this summer, so I hadn't bothered looking for a summer job or arranging to get a vehicle for the summer so I could get to said job.  Well, we're not going to Rome and the prospect of sitting around all summer without anything to do depresses me.  I like stress.  I like deadlines.  I like...plans.  And I figured that instead of sitting around I could take a couple classes and get ahead in my program a bit.

That is when I discovered that I can take a block of teaching classes over the summer and save myself a semester of school.  I hadn't realized that they offered 13 credits of teaching classes over the summer.  So I registered for all of them and then called Kyle - I know I should have done it the other way around, but I got a little excited.  I talked to Kyle, telling him that me taking these 13 credits over the summer *could* mean I could graduate next spring (as in spring 2009) instead of spring 2010.  He was also excited.  

But I still had to get everything ironed out with my advisors - my teaching advisor and my social studies advisor, and I was afraid that since it was so late in the semester (as in finals week) that I wouldn't be able to get in to see them in time.  So I ran around like a crazy person and with a lot of help and encouragement from my friend Jenny we made it happen.  The teaching advisor, who is also the head of the education department, was able to waive a 4 credit class I would have otherwise had to wait around until the spring to take (I never would have thought to ask, but Jenny suggested it and it worked!) and my social studies advisor helped me squish some things around, make some subsitutions and figure out how to make classes I had already taken double and tripple count.  

So then I went in to see the Clinical Experience people to talk about student teaching next spring.  The plan for student teaching, at least the one Kyle and I have, would put me student teaching in the Chicago area.  I would finish this fall semester in Platteville, then we would move to Chicago.  Kyle wants to go back to school when I finally decide to graduate and get a real job, and the place he wants to go is in Deerfield - near Chicago.  The thought being that I will have better luck getting a job in the district where I student teach - and in an urban area where teachers are in high demand - so we might as well live there.  The Clinical Experience people kind of rained on my parade because I am behind the game (technically I should have had this figured out last March, but last March I was still planning on being here a while...) but they don't know who they are dealing with.  I am the picture of persistence when I want something - just talk to the represenatives from my insurance company I talked to several times a day while I waited for approval for my bypass.  They sped my approval right on through in less than a week, I think in part to get me to stop calling.

They told me it would be near impossible to get placed in the Chicago area for next spring because Illinois schools like to know in March of the year before of a candidate's intention to student teach with them.  I am going to need a kick butt Praxis II social studies content test score and I am going to need to cross my fingers that they still have room.  They must have room.  It is stinking Chicago.  And I am signed up to take the Praxis II on June 16 and again on July 26.  If I don't get a stellar score on the first one, I will on the second.  If I do get a stellar score on the first one then I will get a $80 refund.  

And I am going to park my behind in the Clinical Experience office every day if necessary - asking them how I can help them help me.  I will get placed in Chicago.  I know it.  Want to know how?  Well, because on the morning I went in to talk to them I was lingering in my car listening to the Christian radio station I like, because I had 15 minutes before the student center opened.  So I was listening, mulling all of this over, getting discouraged because there is so much to do and I'm not sure that I'm ready or that Kyle and I are ready to get into all this, and the radio host says something to the effect of "I feel like there is someone in our audience who needs to hear this.  Go for it.  There is never going to be a better time.  There will be obstacles and sometimes you're not going to be sure where the money is going to come from or how it is all going to work out, but that is the awesome thing about our God.  He does - He knows, He has a plan.  He will provide for you and He will watch over you and work things out for you.  So step out in faith and trust in God to provide for you.  God can help you do this."

Got it.  It will be hard but we can do this with God.  So here I am, stepping out in faith.

I start classes tomorrow and go straight until August.  There are 3 terms of classes.  The first, from 5/19-6/5, I go from 8-12 Monday-Thursday.  The second, from 6/9-7/3 I go from 11-1 Monday-Thursday.  The third, from 7/7-7/31, I go from 8-12 and then from 1:30-4 Monday-Thursday.  That last one will be the hardest I'm afraid because somewhere in there I'm also supposed to get 15 hours of service learning with students with special needs.  It will be good experience I'm sure, and rewarding, it is just an extra 15 hours of stuff to cram in to an already short term.  Then I'll have the month of August off for summer break.  Hooray!

If all goes as planned, this time next year I will be a college graduate, living in Chicago, waiting to begin my first year as a high school social studies teacher .  That is scary and very exciting all at the same time.  I suppose I have to grow up eventually...right?  

So if you want to pray for Kyle and I - pray that God will provide and make our transitions as easy as ;possible - and that He might show us a little bit ahead of time how things are going to work out.  That would be swell.