Wednesday, August 09, 2006

My Obsession

After my rather disjointed and random-thought-spout-of-a-post yesterday, I've got some things under control!
I woke up this morning, cleaned myself up for babysitting and sat down to eat my breakfast when I got a call from my friend L. She was apologizing and apologizing for not giving me more warning, but could they just cancel babysitting for the day? (UH...You HAVE to ask!?) So I had free time to do all of those things I've been putting off...right!? Well....I held Cam on my lap, sat down to watch an uplifting show on KBYU, then promptly hauled him upstairs for a NICE, LONG NAP!! Ahhhh...I feel so refreshed!!
And now that I feel better....back to some weird thoughts from my brain!
When I was younger I really wanted to be a mom, dance teacher, or a bag lady. (Okay, the bag lady thing just SOUNDED fun!) But as I got older I found that I excelled in one particular subject in school and focused more and more on pursuing that course. What did I want to do? For most of my high school years (and only then) I wanted to be an English teacher. For some reason I'm the weird person who understand what adjectives do...where those DARN commas go....and why we do things a certain way!
I even was in some honor English classes in high school...until my misinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet freshman year got me a dreaded "B!" How scandalous! So I was in "normal" English for the next couple of years, until I decided that I couldn't stand the rate of learning that I was getting in those classes. I pushed my way into my absolute FAVORITE class my senior year: AP Literature. Thanks to that class I was exempt from giving a Senior Project like my other classmates! I was in love with the language and the challenge I got in that class. In the process of pushing my way into AP Lit, I dragged along one of my best friends. She struggled, but she ended up doing VERY well! We both became inspired by our favorite teacher, Mrs. Hatch! She made knowing how English works cool! She also was a very patient and forgiving teacher...especially after our Bunburrying incident.
We had just finished reading "The Importance Of Being Earnest," and Mrs. Hatch told us that she was going to be gone the next classtime and that she was going to leave us a practice AP test to take. We thought we were being funny when we all decided to skip class to visit our "dear sick friend, Bunburry!" Needless to say, the substitute freaked when NO ONE showed up and tattled on us to the principal who ended up being furious with us! Mrs. Hatch thought it was funny, and said that we should have waited for a day when she was there...so she could skip out with us!
After our high school careers were over, my friend and I returned to talk to Mrs. Hatch about what we were doing and what we wanted to be. Both of us told her that we wanted to be English teachers just like our favorite teacher. She was taken aback! Then after the shock wore off...she immediately started to convince us that teaching was NOT all it was cracked up to be.
I had realized this to a small degree when I was Mrs. Hatch's teacher's aide my senior year, but hearing that my FAVORITE teacher didn't like it either solidified my decision. By that time I had changed my mind about what I wanted to be anyway. (I still hope to finish my college education so that I can be a sign language interpreter.)
But changing my mind about being an English teacher hasn't really changed my obsession with proper English. Now I just get frustrated when I can't fix it!! I just wish that I could be an editor. That would be PERFECT for me!! But, I can't do that without finishing school...so until then, I'm your unofficial editor.
My siblings have all come to me with English papers and tips for writing and I love it! It's times like that when I feel English-teacher-esque!
So if I get a bit snobby with my writing...forgive me...it's the English teacher in me coming out!
And on another side note: that friend who I dragged to AP Lit DID become an English teacher. She's LOVING it, which goes to show that it's your attitude about what you do that determines your happiness!

6 comments:

Mel said...

My desire to learn sign is slowly growing. When Crew was 1st diagnosed with mild/mod hearing loss I wasn't interested in learning to sign. Now that I am accepting the disability I am more motivated to learn & teach him too. The whole family is into it. So, I say "yeah" to your interest in becoming a sign language interpretor. You go girl!

CareBearMommy said...

It, really, bugs, me; when I! see the--- wrong, type. of punctuation' in a sentence. Speling erors allso get under my scin. GRRRR! I'm glad that you find so much joy in doing something so useful, such as editing your siblings papers. They are lucky to have your help. I hope you can someday finish your education so that you can do all you wanna do and be all you wanna be.

Millie said...

I have a really hard time not wanting to correct grammatical and punctuation errors on other people's blogs and websites. :) They drive me completely batty! Glad I'm not the only one!

Mall Worker said...

I'm horrible and spelling and grammar, but I try really hard! I had today off of babysitting too, but no one informed to tell me! I think that irks me the most! I'm glad that you and Cam got to have a good nap :)

Blackeyedsue said...

How lucky for you to have the day off!

I am sending all of my blog posts to you for editing. I still don't get prepositions. I use too many commas; I don't know when I need to use a semicolon. I use too many parentheses. Don't even get me started on run-on and fragmented sentences.

How on Earth did I skate through all of those English classes in High School and College?

That's right; I had a reputation that preceded me.

Thanks for this post Dawnyel.

Kristine said...

Funny, I debated the English teacher route too, and it was inspired by my wonderful English teacher too. Something needs to be done for all those fabulous teachers...
Congratulations on the day off...it's always nice to have a positive change in the routine.