Berkeley, you da best!!! {The Thankful Project}

November 3 & 4: A Place and An Experience

I'm writing these two prompts together, because they go hand in hand. Essentially they are one in the same, but one wouldn't have happen if the other didn't exist.

I'm extremely thankful to have had the experience of going to college. As I've mention before, my college experience was not a walk in the park. I don't think no ones is, unless you are extremely smart. The first year was the hardest. I was so homesick at Berkeley that I wanted to dropout and come back home. Keep in mind it's only 1hr 15 mins on plane, and 6 hours in a car. With the help of my family and my friends they pushed me to finish the semester, and then finish the first year, and even finish the second year.

Berkeley, has a stigma. Definetely good, a top public school of the nation. But to me, it just meant more pressure. I was far from a brainiac, I struggled a lot in my classes, but I'm grateful to have meet classmates who were struggling like me, who would want to study together.

My second year, I got involved in this amazing organization called Hermanas Unidas. It was a support system that was available to the women of Berkeley to gives us support and resources to help us succeed. It a student led organization. Joining that organization was the best decision I made at Berkeley. Through Hermanas Unidas I met some amazing women, that I now call my best friends. And the best part was that, in 1994 the Berkeley chapter was the very first chapter of Hermanas Unidas Inc. When I first joined Hermanas I think there were about 11 chapters along California, now 19 years later there are 19 chapters!! In my third and fourth year I became part of the board for my chapter. The best experience!!

Berkeley has shaped me to the person I am today. It has seen me come out from my shell, become a little bit more confident, helped me speak up for what I believed in (still trying). Berkeley has seen the good times, and the really bad times. But if I had the chance to do it over, I would, because those experiences at Berkeley made me who I am. I met my best friends, and I grew personally, mentally, and psychologically.

 Thank you Berkeley!!!!!

My Role As A Teacher {The Thankful Project}

Check out Chasing Happy for all the prompts for The Thankful Project

November 2: A Role You've Played

If you ask my mom she can tell you that I always wanted to be a teacher. She tells me that I have patience something that according to her she does not. But yes, for as long as I can remember I've always wanted to work with kids. I believe education is the most important thing someone can have. Although my dream goals have changed and varied along the years, being a teacher has always stayed at the back of mind. 

It was my senior year of college. I was freaking out because I was going to graduate in less than a year, and I still didn't have a job experience. I searched online at our work study and found this amazing company called Jumpstart. The program worked with preschools/headstart throughout the nation to help the kiddies be ready for kindergarten. Their mission was to  provide early education centers with core values, and corp members to help prepare the children to succeed when they enter elementary school. 

The rest of my team, and the amazing teachers!!

It was the best experience I have had in my life. As a team of 5 members, we came up with session plans that involved reading groups, circle time, center time, and other areas. It was the closest I was to being a teacher. And I loved it. The kids were the sweetest, and each morning we went they already knew what was ahead. 

I'm grateful for the role of teacher I got the chance of playing through Jumpstart, because it was through this experience that I fell in love with teaching even more.

The Thankful Project {Day 1: A Person}

It's November. Is it just me or has time flown by this year? My favorite months of the whole year are November and December.

November is a month of being thankful, love and family. December is the month of more gratefulness, love, and family.

Most times I'm hard on myself, for not accomplishing things I planned to, or not taking some paths I should have, or this or that. And sometimes I take things for granted. But when Thanksgiving comes around, and I just look around the circle that me and my family make to give thanks before eating, I realize about all the things I should be grateful for.

So this month, I will participating along with Kenzie at Chasing Happy for her Thankful Project, read more here. Each day up until Thanksgiving, we write about something we are thankful for. Visit her page for the prompts.

November 1: A Person

I have a lot of people to be thankful for. Amazing people surround me, and I'm so glad that they are a part of my life. Please believe me when I say, if I didn't have the people that I do, I don't think I would be here. I know I don't tell me enough, or at all, how important they are in my life, but I am really grateful for them, every single one, parents, grandparents, best friends, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends. 

But the one person I am the most thankful for is my mom. I'm the only girl, so I'm both of a mommy's girl and a daddy's girl. But I think I'm closer to my mom. She did, and does a lot for us. When we were younger, she would go volunteer at our school, even when she was stuck helping the struggling kids, and let me say she has no patience with kids that are not her own. lol. She's told us that she was frustrated when she would go volunteering. 

She helped us with homework to the best of her ability. And she always put us first. She took us to our baseball practices and softball games. She dances to the beat of her own music. But seriously she does, when I was younger I would be embarrassed but now I've learned to appreciate her. :) 

She's my amazing, beautiful, smart, strong SUPER MAMI!! I don't know what I would do without her. or who I would be. or where I would be. She's helped me in the darkest days and nights in college. And I know she will always love me and my brothers and my dad unconditionally. And I will always love her. 

These words do not do justice to how incredibly grateful I am to have a mom like the one that I do. I love you, mom!!