The clock strikes 5:30 a.m. and I immediately roll over to swat my alarm as the sound of “Uptown Funk” blares from my phone. As I lay there in bed, I thought to myself, “It couldn’t possibly be 5:30 already.”  To my dismay, it was truly time to start my day.

6:30 a.m. Hopefully, the boys living downstairs couldn’t hear the floors creaking as a hurried to get myself together and out the door. My next stop was the rec center for my 6:30 a.m. soccer practice. As I arrived in the lobby around 6:15, I couldn’t help but think about the long day I had ahead of me. Similar thoughts ran through my head the entire practice. With each squat I did, my brain grew more and more distracted. However, this worked in my favor; before I knew it, practice was over, and I was on my way home to prepare for my next adventure.

8:00 a.m. Finally, a few short hours of “me time”. I decide to take a nice long shower and relax my mind. Once I’m all squeaky clean and comfortable, I decide to take what I imagined to be a 30-minute nap to recharge myself after practice. As you can imagine, 30 minutes turned into 3 hours, and I’d officially wasted my only me time for the day. I hurried up and got ready for class, shoveled down a turkey sandwich and brewed a coffee to go. I was off to class for the next 4 hours.

12:00 p.m. Concepts and Methods of Teaching Social Studies was my first class of the day.  It is a two hour class, though with the group of girls in my class and our wonderfully wise professor, Mr. Sucha, it could probably last all day. I really do admire Mr. Sucha and his passion for teaching, though we are always running to get to our next class on time.

The wonderfully wise Mr. Sucha

2:10 p.m. The next class on my schedule was Positive Behavioral Supports and Interventions. In other words, we learn methods to help emotionally/behaviorally struggling students. I really enjoy this class because it is an area that concerns me about teaching. I always wonder how I am going to be able to manage a classroom full of 20 to 30 six-year-olds, especially if a few of them have behavioral issues.  This class allows me to focus my attention on learning new skills to help these students succeed in my classroom. This is another class that truly flies by.  The clock strikes 4:10 p.m. and it was time to run home for dinner before a meeting and night class.

4:15 p.m. I had 45 minutes to prepare dinner and get to my meeting. I called my boyfriend, Justin, and we decided it sounded like a pasta night. As the water boiled, I figured I had about 10 spare minutes.  I called my mother.  We caught up about how long our day has been and how we have such a busy week ahead of us. The water was now overflowing and I was running to turn the burner down.  I threw the noodles in and stirred.   I gathered my books for the night class and set the table.  The noodles were done and our dinner was ready. We had about 15 minutes to sit and eat.  Justin and I chatted over dinner and talked about our days.  It was now 4:50 p.m. and time to run off to my meeting before class. Again, I quickly brewed a cup of coffee and ran off to my meeting.

5:00 p.m. Justin walked me to Palumbo and we parted with a hug. Off to room 2005 for my Gannon Society for Exceptional Children (GUSEC) meeting. We talked about what was going on in our club and what future events we had approaching.  I signed up for one of our dances held at Gannon.  GUSEC hosts dances in Yehl Ballroom for adults with disabilities, and they are absolutely so much fun!

6:00 p.m. The dreaded night class had arrived.  It isn’t that I hate the class itself; I actually really enjoy it. It’s just that at this point, my day started over 12 hours ago, and my brain was not ready to sit and focus for three hours. As 8:50 p.m. approached, I made myself a list of things to do for tomorrow.  This is something I always do at the end of each day. It helps keep me organized and focused on the things I need to do in order to keep track of my busy life.

9:00 p.m. The mandatory tasks of my day were done. I could finally breathe and relax. I sat down in bed and clicked on Netflix to watch “Friends,” thinking to myself, “What am I going to do tonight?”  Then, I rolled over to the sound of “Uptown Funk once again. Seriously?!