30 Days of Thankfulness- Education

While I can't say I have always had the best experience with school, I can say that I am thankful for the education I have received and the opportunities available to me, both because of the time and the country in which I live.

I attended four schools in my lifetime- five, if you include college. School was tough for me sometimes. My first three years of elementary school (a public school) were OK, except for being picked on by girls bigger than me, and being physically attacked by a boy with behavioral problems who ripped out my earring (which has healed over and been re-pierced twice, and it's never going to be the same.) The second school I attended was a very small private school set in a Baptist church. I had anxiety issues every day (this was shortly before I was diagnosed), but for the most part I got along with everyone, and for two out of the three years I was there, I had a decent teacher. The second year I was there, we had an awful teacher. She spit and threw ice chips at us, and had her favorite students pick at her grey hairs while she examined a mole on her face with a pocket mirror. EVERY DAY. It was very weird and she should have been fired. But I digress. After that, I had two years at a public middle school, which were just terrible. I was mercilessly bullied, harassed by TWO members of the faculty, I didn't learn anything, got jumped one day after school, and a kid got stabbed in a classroom two doors down from my homeroom. After that, I got moved back to private school again- and that's where I finished my schooling. I was at that school for five years, the longest I stayed at any school. I was bullied some for the first two years or so, and sometimes the faculty didn't do the best job of handling it. I had some really good teachers, and just a couple of teachers who didn't do the greatest job (they are no longer at that school.) I did learn, unlike my previous school, which is good. And that environment was definitely safer than public school, for which I am grateful. My last year there was a pretty good one- I made good grades (except in math), and directed the fall play and starred in the spring play. So that was pretty cool. After graduation, I got over three years of college under my belt before I left because of the extraordinary cost. On paper, I'm still a junior. Maybe some day I will finish up my degree so my experience in college wasn't a total waste of tens of thousands of dollars.

I'm thankful for the educational opportunities I've had. I'm thankful I got to go to private school- I don't know how I'd be or where I'd be today if I didn't get those 8 collective years of private school education. I'm thankful that girls in America today are encouraged to finish their educations and to even attend college. It hasn't always been that way! I'm thankful for the scholarships I did receive that allowed me to go to a private college, which was easier for me to cope with on so many levels- and I was able to attend a well-respected university with some fabulous professors (and I got to go to school with Brandon!)

While my country- and ESPECIALLY not my state- doesn't qualify as the absolute best country in the world, and while there are issues with our educational system (I'm looking at you, teacher's unions), no one has ever thrown acid at me for trying to go to school. No one has ever tried to assassinate me for daring to get an education. We have a lot to be thankful for, as ladies in America. Our girls may struggle with self-esteem and bullying, but most likely no one is going to try to kill them just for trying to learn.

This is what Senior Year apathy looks like. Superhero Day, Spring spirit week, 2006