(Ok so this is how my day played out....without being so urban...my mini blog)
Yesterday was the big day for me. I had stressed and exerted all of my energy into this interview for the past three weeks. It was a wonderful experience that I will never ever forget. In preparation I informed all of my closest friends that I did not want any form of communication with them after 9 PM the night before; because I was so nervous I needed the extra time to actually fall asleep. So I feel asleep around 10:15 to prepare myself for my 6:45am departure from home in Maryland, and my early arrival at the Teach for America offices in DC. I am happy to say that I was the first to arrive at my interview site exactly 45 minutes early, and I feel comfortable giving all of the credit to my good old Johnson & Wales standards on Professionalism. So I sat patiently waiting for my opportunity to demonstrate what I had been preparing for, as the other 9 candidates flooded the waiting area.
Being the socialite that I am, I started conversing with everyone to help ease some of my anxiety as well as set the tone of comfort amongst us. So 9 o'clock finally gets here and we are pushed into this immaculate conference room, with a huge dry erase board that seems a bit out of place. Not knowing what to expect we all sat in the first available chair and began to exude our emotions in our facial expressions to one another. And it was at that moment where I felt comfortable, knew what I was there to do, and some of that anxiety was relieved. As the interviewers began to speak, I cited a quick verse from the bible that I read the night before from Joshua 1:9; "Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed: for your God is with you wherever you go." So I took a sigh of relief and got into my zone of humility and perseverance. So before I knew it, it was time to present our teaching lessons. It was bad enough that we only had five minutes to set up, present, and conclude our lessons, but they asked for a volunteer to go first and without hesitation or thought my hand went up in the air, almost involuntarily. So I jumped up and asked for volunteers to help pass out the study guides & in class assignments that I had created.
On the chalkboard I wrote : Miss Ingram's 4th Grade Pre-Algebra review! Order of Operations was the lesson...or maybe proving that this was my passion was really the lesson at hand. So without further hesitation I asked my 4th grade class (other interviewees) to jump to their feet, give me a stretch, and repeat after me, " Please...Excuse...My....Dear...Aunt...Sally....(all repeated)...and as we know that was a phrase created to remember the steps of the Order of Operations...(Parenthesis,Exponents,Multiplication,Division,Addition, Subtraction , for those of you that forgot)...Thank you class now have a seat and we will review the proper steps in the Order of Operations." And at that moment it became second nature; my ability to communicate and be receptive to my students was a phenomenal experience. The mere fact that they enjoyed every last minute of revisting their childhood made it that much easier for me to showcase my intellect. In a snap I set the tone for the other 9 interviewees to come after me, and my five minutes were up, but not without me finishing the lesson by having them read a quote that I loved, "I don't eat junk food and I don't think junk thoughts." That second of silence seemed like an eternity of doubt, until they stood and even acknowledged my efforts that I put into the lesson; and the day had just began for me.
By noon that afternoon we had already gone through 30 minutes on a group discussion regarding Educational Leadership issues, to prejudices in the school system, to the effects of government funding; 45 minutes of a problem solving activity; and another 1 hour in a question and answer session. I was exhausted and just anxious because I just wanted to hear, Tierra your fantastic and we know you deserve to be here, and so on and son on. But reality hit me! There was one more final step to this process and that was the final personal interview which ended up being 1 full emotional, intense, and challeging hour of question and answer. It took me back to my childhood that has been far from great and my teenage years which were the darkest years of my life. I was having a serious internal emotional breakdown, because those were times in my life that I chose to force in the back of mind. But that was the beauty of the day, I was able to confront some of those tragic issues and exude where my passion comes from and why I derserve a chance. So overall it went absoluetly fantastic, I couldn't have asked more of myself. March 10th is my D-Day! I will find out if I am excepted to the program and where my placement will be.
So far I haven't been really open about my past or tragic things that has happened to me and I am just beginning to realize that that is the therapy that I need. This past year and a half has been very difficult and eye-opening to me, and I've been able to learn more about myself and different people around me. I've been through so many ups and downs in my life that I should be the CEO of an elevator company. LOL. And I've experienced so many lows in the past few months that I have no other choice but to be lifted up! I've changed DRASTICALLY and I mean DRASTICALLY over just the past weeks and just found a side of Tierra that I am finally coming to grips with. I have lost some heartfelt "friendships" and "relationships" just in the past three months that the hardest thing for me to do is let go of the Love that I've had for anyone before. I love hard and I always have and that's one thing that will never ever change, but learning to control it is the biggest challenge for me today. To some people I'm too deep, too complex to understand and to other's a beautiful woman inside and out. I'm asking to be liked because dislike comes from being misunderstood, but just give me genuine love, and if you can' even give me that then do yourself a genuine favor and fallback.
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