Long time, no talk.

I haven't blogged in about a month for a few reasons, one of which being that I felt I had nothing new to say. A lot of my past posts had the theme of uncertainty and alluded to big changes up ahead-- and that's all I was ruminating on for the past month.

I was stuck in a holding pattern waiting to hear back about some exciting news that would potentially bring about major change.

I can finally tell you about that news.

A photo posted by Amanda (@mandalyn93) on Apr 25, 2016 at 7:07pm PDT

If that photo didn't load for you, it's me holding a sign that says "I'm going to be an English teacher!"

That's right, folks. I'm finally pursuing teaching as a career after dreaming about it since I was in junior high, and it's a totally crazy story how it worked out.

I'd been looking into a few certification + Masters programs including (but not limited to) the San Francisco Teacher's Residency at the University of San Francisco. I was in looooooove with the program, in which you attend USF for two years, obtain your Masters of Arts in Teaching, and then are placed in a San Francisco area school for three years.

That program sounded (and honestly still sounds like) a dream to me, except for one thing: I didn't (and still kinda don't) want to leave my city. Other than that, SFTR was the plan and the goal. I would spend the next year building up a savings account and then move to the Bay Area and pursue a MaT and join SFTR.

At least that was the plan until I learned about the Teach for America and Arizona State partnership program. If you're unfamilar with Teach for America, the dealio is relatively similar to SFTR: You commit to teaching for two years and at the end of the two years you will have earned your teaching certificate and, if you choose, a Masters degree in Education.

I started my Teach for America application one week before the final deadline to apply to join the 2016-2017 corps. Nearly two months and a lot of tears and a lot of prayers later (and after a very rigorous application and interview process) I found out I was accepted and placed in Phoenix as a secondary education level English teacher.

This summer will be full of training and practice teaching at a summer school, and then POOF, I'll be a certified teaching intern with a classroom of my own in a Phoenix-area school in the fall!

Now, it's really not all that simple. I have a two courses and one big test I need to take before I even get to begin the summer training institute, and I also need to figure out which training institute I'll be attending. I'll be in Ecuador during the first week of the Phoenix institute, so I'm hopefully transferring to either Tulsa or the Delta training institute for the summer...but no matter how it works out, God's brought me this far. He'll take me through the rest of this.

Cactus

A photo posted by Amanda (@mandalyn93) on Nov 26, 2015 at 4:11pm PST

They used to call me Cactus. I was tall; a desert native.

They could find me dusty, dirty, outside from sun up to sun down. The owls found their home in me, hooting late into the night and the mice made their bed at my feet.

They saw me stare into the dark night sky speckled with stars, arms lifted high above my head in praise. They hugged my strong core, praised my nimble structure.

They would laugh joyfully when they found the gecko on my arm and were delightfully surprised when they felt the prickles of my legs.

They knew they could find a camera wherever I was. The sun would hit me just right, the nuances of my body visible in the desert sunlight and eternally etched into a frame of film.

They depended on my strength and ability to hold my own, to survive in drought, to provide for other desert dwellers.

They used to call me Cactus; now I'm just Amanda.