What are your five greatest accomplishments?
1. Being patient and open-minded enough to find the right man to spend the rest of my life with. I know this one sounds strange, but honestly, I was close to giving up on finding the right person to spend my life with when I met your dad. I had been frustrated and disappointed by a lot of guys that I thought were going to be the right ones. However, I never gave up on finding someone I could love with all the love that I had and someone who would love me as much as I loved him. I also made sure that I didn't miss out on things because I was so focused on finding the right guy. I went and did things and enjoyed myself. I kept believing that I was worth it and I should keep my faith while living a full and happy life. That's when I met your dad and the rest is history.
2. Getting my bachelor's and master's degrees with high honors. I am have always done well in school, but it never really came easy to me. I always had to work hard for my grades and put in a lot of time to be as successful as I was. Now I will say that your grandparents made it easier for me to get my grades on my bachelor's degree because they paid for my college and I only had to work for a little extra money. My master's degree, on the other hand, was earned while I was teaching, so it was a busy time for me, but I still kept my grades up. I'm very proud of how successful I was in getting my education.
3. Staying at a challenging school doing a challenging job for as many years as I have. As you will likely know by the time you read this, I teach at a Title I school with over 90% of the students receiving free or reduced lunches. This makes my job very challenging. Some of the students don't really care about their education and will fight teachers who want to help them learn. Turnover at a school like mine is very high. In fact, there are only two other teachers who have been at Curtis as long or longer than I have. Sometimes I wonder if I'm there out of habit, but I am there and am still giving everything I can to my students.
4. Setting the goal of living a healthier life and sticking to it for over a year. In April 2012, I decided it was time to make a change in my life and so I did it. I started eating healthier and working out. I started small with walking a half mile and moved up to running 5Ks. So many great things happened because of that changes I made, not the least of which was getting pregnant with you. I look forward to getting back to some of the healthier activities I started and sharing those with you.
5. Quitting smoking. Like too many stupid teenagers, I started a bad habit to be cool with my friends who smoked. Now I do want to make it clear that they never pressured me to smoke and in fact asked me a bunch of times when I first started if I really wanted to do this. However, I was stubborn and headstrong and started one of the worst habits I have ever had. I started with a few cigarettes every couple of days and ended up, 16 years later, with a pack a day habit a full blown ridiculous addiction. I spent a lot of time saying that I could quit anytime that I wanted to and tried to quit more times than I can remember. However I finally made up my mind that it was the right time for me to quit and I was going to do it. When I did that, I was done. It wasn't easy. I took a prescription to ease the cravings and nicotine patches to make the transition easier. It took several months before I could even be around smokers without wanting a cigarette. Now, almost 10 years later, I can't stand the smell of cigarettes, especially since being pregnant. The day before you will be born will mark the 10 year anniversary of my quitting. It's something I'm very proud of.
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