Memoir: Single College Mom

    When I envisioned what my college experience would consist of, I pictured dorm rooms, freedom, new friends, parties, and some learning in the mix. To me college was considered the time to figure out who you are and what you want to be, and have new experiences. I could not wait to go to college! I survived one semester of BCC before I decided I wanted to put college on hold and have fun. I had a job where I was making good money and I thought I had life made! I was definitely not prepared for what the future had planned for me. April 18th, 2010 I was blessed with a beautiful daughter, and I knew my life was going to change, along with all my plans. As I watched all my friends go off and continue living the "college life". I was determined to go back to college one way or another.
    It may have taken longer than I had hoped, but I did it, back at college! It may not be the 4 year university I had imagined, but it was a start. My first week of classes was a piece of cake, I thought this was going to be a breeze. I had a ton of motivation and i was so excited to be back in school working toward my degree. As school progress and the classes began to pick up it started to get harder for me to balance between school and being a single mom with a two year old. I had to get use to a new routine; wake up by 6am, shower, get myself ready, wake my daughter up, get her ready for daycare, make breakfast for the both of us, bring her to daycare, go to class all day, pick her up from daycare, clean, make dinner for her and then for me, clean some more, give her a bath, get her ready for bed, bedtime stories or movie, and then finally put her to bed! By the time she went to bed I could barely keep my eyes open while trying to study or do homework. When I tried doing school work while she was up it was constant distractions, "mommy eat", "mommy cup", "mommy color", my notebook and book would be filled with more of her drawings and scribbles then my own work! I started to think this was going to be difficult to accomplish. How would I be able to pull this off?
    After two weeks of hectic chaos, I finally managed to gain control of managing my time (for the most part). Managing schoolwork and a demanding toddler will always be a challenge, but I knew it wasn't impossible. This is definitely not the exciting, fun "college experience"  that I had imagined. This is definitely the most difficult educational experience for me, but I feel the outcome will be much more rewarding once I have accomplished my goals.

The theme I would be most interested in reading/writing about would be education. One educational topic I would like to focus on would be Special Education, I have some personal experience with this because I have a 10year old autistic brother, also my career goal is to work in the special education department. I would really be able to connect with this topic, and I would love to learn as much as I possibly could about it so I can use it in my career. For some observations I could go to schools and observe special ed classrooms and incluse classrooms. Some arguements could consist of the help children with disabilities need and if they're getting the proper help they need, and also the controversy of inclusive classrooms, and if the normal kids are accepting of the disabled child. There are many other things that can be discussed such as how the children interact with each other (disabled & normal). How it is for the teacher to have an inclusive classroom and what her concerns are in having that type of classroom. My two back up choices would be health & medicine, or family & relationships.

Practice reading

"Forget Goofing Off" A new school program is expanding to more and more schools. The new program is a organized activity recess rather than free play recess. This new program is designed to stop bullying, & behavioral problems, and also help kids with their social skills, and also help with childhood obesity. It also hopes to show kids they can also have fun without video games, and cell phones.

Writers Autobiography

My writing past is not the greatest, I'm not a big writer nor have I ever been. It;s never been my strong point however I don't mind it. I enjoy writing about things I know or have had experience with. However when it comes to reading I'm a huge book worm when I have the time. Around 7th & 8th grade I started reading Lurlene McDaniel book and became hooked on all of her books, I couldn't put them down and when I was done with one I was starting another. She is a phenomenal author in my opinion. One reason she really captured my attention is a lot of her collections are about kids facing life threatening illnesses, and some don't survive. It wasn't the typical "happy endings" it was very real. Most stories always seem to have a happy ending and a lot of people can't relate to them. In her books people can relate to some of the situations and actually feel emotions as they read it. Not all of her stories are sad, some are inspirational stories about courage, love and strength in the face of overwhelming trauma. After reading a lot of her stories and made me really appreciate the life I have and respect other who actually go through situations like the ones in her books. I'm always open to read new material so I can expand my reading experiences. I'm also looking forward into learning how to better my writing skills, and be able to express myself and my thoughts in my work.