Goodbye Asheville: College friends... forever

Before and after we went wild, there was:

Liz, now a biology doctoral candidate at Chapel Hill

Liz and I before she left for Chapel Hill :)
Andrew, who worked on the set of "Gossip Girls" in NYC and now lives in LA as an assistant to a director

My "big brother" Greg, who lives in Japan and speaks Japanese, but doesn't really like it?!

"Big Sexy" Daniel, a CrossFit trainer, and my roommate of course
My roommate and still one of my closest friends, Kris, a physics doctoral student at Chapel Hill

In Athens, GA, drinking!


Kris's going-away gift

Stephen "McGarBear" now goes to the University of Georgia where he's getting/has gotten his masters in social work

And, CeCe and I both work with kids, or well, students.

Goodbye Asheville: History family

I never drank beer until I wrote my thesis.

We'd spend days in our research rooms and nights at bars downtown.

Conor and I with a non-history major friend

The family: Conor, Erin, Adam, Bonnie, and Kelly

We included other people too. Aren't Kris and Yancey cute with their hand-holding?

Amanda and I went to California to do thesis research, and even met up with Conor there.

Here we are in San Diego:

In LA:

The girls are pretty much out of our lives, but the boys and I continue to be pals minus like a year where Conor and I had a strange conflict.

Whether in Spain (Adam) or Australia/New Zealand (Conor), we still remember one another.

Goodbye Asheville: Finding my passion

When I came to Asheville for college, I wanted to study poli sci and teach. Instead, I studied history and decided to teach.

I disagree with the Teaching Fellows scholarship that gives high school seniors an education in return for several years of teaching afterwards. What do you know at 17 or 18 that makes you want to teach? Maybe some people know, but you have to be in the classroom first.

My first venture into the classroom was at 19, working with 17 year olds. I tutored.

I hated the high school at first then I loved it. I got to see them graduate. Now they're 21. Crazy right?

I was promoted from tutor to tutor leader, scheduling and training tutors and going on trips with the kids. I chaperoned a college visit to Atlanta.

I loved working with this population.

I was forced to change though. I didn't think I could handle the more rural population at my student teaching placement, but they were great.

The seniors were tough, but I had one junior in my psych class; she was smart and awesome.

I enjoyed the cute freshmen in my world history honors class, but juniors ended up being my favorite... and I love U.S. history.

I subbed and decided I wanted to start off as an assistant at the preschool. I met great co-workers and had some lovely kids, but for the most part, I was miserable. I had no idea what I was getting myself into: rules, potty accidents, violence, neediness... the experience taught me this: I like high school.

Some days it was nice though, and I'll miss the smiles of the kids I had at the end of the day.

They grew on me.