A year of blogging, a year of growth

April marks a year of blogging. A year of directed, focused reflection and self-analysis.

The pieces are falling into place. I have a much better sense of who I am, what I have to offer others, my strengths, my abilities, my temperament and all the ways I have reason to be proud of how I’ve grown up, the person I’ve become.

College graduation: Now what?

I finished college in four years. That wasn’t necessarily viewed as a major accomplishment. It was an expectation. You go to college and get a degree. There’s nothing extraordinary in that. And at this point in my life accomplishments required doing extraordinary things. Talk about setting the bar result high for yourself!

Makeup, teaching, and leaving my mark

Between my junior and senior year in high school is when I officially tried makeup. Mom took me to a Mary Kay demonstration, so I had some exposure to proper application. I had been given many makeup kits as gifts over the years. That seemed to be the go-to gift for a teenage girl.

To a degree I could see how, applied well, the makeup enhanced rather than overwhelmed a look. But I also was aware of people who refused to leave their house without makeup, and I didn’t want to become that dependent.

The poking and prodding of eye liner was lost on me, though. It seemed impossible to get used to. Getting that close to my eye. I could barely tolerate someone applying it for me, so I just didn’t mess with it. And yet I felt that was a pretty important element for definition, especially when combined with eye shadow.

Preschool through 8th grade: Where do things stand?

Since my preschool diagnosis of sensory processing disorder and the completion of eighth grade means about 10 years have passed, I thought I would do a review of how things have progressed. I’m looking to address these questions:

• What areas seemed to have improved?
• Have I grown out of anything?
• What am I still struggling with?
• Has anything new developed?

If you missed my big rundown of sensory issues, you can find it here. And don’t worry, throughout this list, there will be links back to appropriate blog posts to offer further explanation. 

Around the world in 15 minutes: The importance of goal setting

In second grade we were learning our multiplication tables. I believe we covered 0 x 0 through 12 x 12. But we weren’t simply learning these answers. Our teacher wanted it to become second nature, so you could see the combination and instantly rattle off the answer. Yes, it has tremendous real-life applications, but for students with learning disabilities, it’s a bit more difficult.

We had these quick tests where we had to solve 20 to 30 problems within a minute. Well it wasn’t simply testing your knowledge of the material but how quickly you could recall it. If your brain has trouble relaying information in time, quick recall isn’t going to be a strong suit. Those tests were more anxiety-inducing for me than demonstrating academic mastery.

Celebrate the kindergarten graduation!

I’m detouring a little here but not really. There are entries I’ve been working on but they aren’t quite ready yet. So here is something new at least.

I’m wrapping up a second round of physical therapy this week. Round one was to help build up muscle strength after I fractured my right ankle in September. Round two began after I pulled something in my left knee about 6 weeks ago.

In physical therapy yesterday I overheard the trainer and another client talking. I don’t remember how they got on this topic but they mentioned a parent needing to attend a child’s graduation from kindergarten. Neither of those talking has kids. Their reaction was not friendly. “Graduation from what?”

They see coloring and playing. They might even see this as a time of kids goofing off. What is there to celebrate? Why are you making a big deal out of it when there is so much more ahead?