"Oh, I thought you were someone who liked to blog about their ideals..."

... So yeah, I guess I'm a blogger now.

I recently got accepted into Teach for America, a program that places mostly recent college grads into underprivileged schools around the country to teach for two years. They'll train me all summer (teacher's boot camp basically) to be the best teacher possible and in the fall I'll teach special education students in Atlanta, GA. Their goal is to close the achievement gap between students from families of a higher socioeconomic status and underprivileged students, especially minorities. It's a very real problem that often gets swept under the rug and blamed on the people who are essentially the victims, the students.

Teach for America is a highly reputable, very competitive program, so I'm proud of my acceptance and excited for a new opportunity to make a positive change, but I'm also really nervous. It's been an emotional roller coaster since Wednesday when I got my acceptance e-mail. I was put on a wait list for the program, so I basically took that as a denial and made other plans. I had an assistantship to stay at Clemson for grad school all but guaranteed and was even apartment hunting when I got my acceptance letter. I thought I was going to have a super flexible summer, go visit my family, my boyfriend's family, go to a friend's wedding, go to a development training event and hang out in Clemson with a great part time job. In the fall I would have a great job, work towards my MPA and be with a great boyfriend who applied to Clemson for me (and a good assistantship) ...all of which I was SUPER excited about... until my TFA acceptance turned my world upside down. TFA is such a great opportunity though, I will get certified to be a highly qualified special education teacher, get to live in a really cool city and TFA is so highly thought of and competitive that it's on Business Week's Top 10 places to launch a career, right up there with Google, IBM and Microsoft. It will look phenomenal on a resume and hopefully open up a lot of doors for me, whether it's a future job or scholarships to better graduate programs. Plus, most importantly, my biggest goal in life is to “Go into the world and do well. But, more importantly, go into the world and do good.” (Minor Meyers Jr.), so I could not turn down the opportunity to take a leadership role in making a positive difference in the lives of children through such a highly reputable organization... I just couldn't, without worrying that I would regret it later. It wasn't easy though, I cried about losing my sense of freedom, the things I'll miss and being away from someone I care about.

I have to leave for Atlanta in two weeks and I'll be in training more than full time all summer. This will consist of classes, tests and teaching summer school with a group of TFA trainees and a veteran teacher. I have to be on a bus everyday at 6:30 am!! Anyone that knows me knows that it will be a miracle if I don't miss this bus once a week. I'm the slowest person ever, especially getting ready in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. haha. From June 1st-July 10th I'll live in Georgia Tech dorms... fun, not. haha. And during that time I'll try to find someone in TFA that I might want to live with, and go apartment shopping on the weekends. This roommate must like dogs because I need a pup in my life... bad. haha.

Teaching for the next two years is said by TFA alum to be the hardest, but most rewarding thing I'll ever do... so here goes nothing.

To keep my friends and family up to date I'll try to post as much as I can during Induction, Institute and then teaching!! Wish me luck and keep me (& my future students) in your prayers! We'll need it! haha

Love,
Erika