Livin' La Vida Loca: Grad School Edition

I've finally had a full week of my crazy new schedule. Here's the gist of my life these days: I tutor 40 hours- 3 days at the school I used to work at and 2 days at another elementary school. I wish I could quit the job at the other elementary school because it pays half as much, but I have made a commitment that I should uphold. Then I am taking 12 hours of classes in school counseling. I am also a Young Life leader, which keeps me busy 2-3 nights a week. And did I mention I am starting a small group with my church on Thursday nights? It's pretty nuts but I realize I actually really like being busy. I've already gotten into the habit of bringing my grad school books with me everywhere to make use of any spare moment. Now I do feel good about schedule right now. Let's see how I feel when all the tests and papers hit.

Here's an example of what my Wednesdays look like. Last Wednesday was my first day tutoring, first day of school and first night of Young Life club. I woke up in the 6's. Ugh! I drove to the school I was tutoring at. I left a little too early so I ended up chilling in the parking lot for about 30 minutes. This is why I will have my grad school books with me at all times from now on. It was interesting to see how a different school runs but eight hours was a long time. I left a 3:30pm and headed to U of H. I changed in my minivan. That thing may guzzle gas, but it makes a hell of a changing room. Unfortunately I forgot my tennis shoes so I had to wear my fancy teacher shoes with my jeans and t-shirt. I brought foldy, my folding bike, which was a good thing since I got a little lost. I rode foldy from the parking lot to my class.

Even though it was the first day, my class went all the way from 4:30-7:30. I almost ran out of energy half way through but a Coke remedied the situation. After class, I swiftly rode foldy back to the minivan for another costume change. This is where the lack of tennis shoes was really problematic. I changed into my biking clothes for a Young Life skit. I ended up just wearing my socks since I thought it looked a little less weird than bike clothes and my fancy teacher shoes.

I drove to Young Life and arrived about 15 minutes after it had begun. We were having our annual Pizza Olympics, where we call three pizza places at the same time and place an order. They are unknowingly a part of our little game. As each unsuspecting pizza delivery person arrives, they are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals and treated to the Olympic theme song. Their facial expressions are priceless. My job was to pretend to be a pizza person and bring in the three pizzas for the pizza eating competition. I dressed in my full bike gear and had one of the students sit on the back seat of foldy carrying the pizzas. It didn't quite go as planned. The kids mobbed me at the door and since I hadn't been around in a while, some of them thought I really was a pizza delivery person. Other kids did recognize me and tried to hug me as I was trying to make it through the sea of high school kids to the front of the room. In the process, some of the kids grabbed one of the pizzas and started to eat it.

I didn't know what I was going to say for the skit when I finally got in but it didn't matter because the kids were so loud, they wouldn't have heard me anyway. I ended by folding up my bike and walking off. It was pretty crazy and overwhelming to be thrust into a crazy crowd of teenagers. After everything calmed down, my friend Ann gave a talk about how God created us. I don't know if it was partly because of my long day but I found myself wanting to cry, not out of sadness but out of gratefulness. I felt so blessed that I got to end my day sharing Jesus with high school kids. It made it all worth it.