Photo was taken by me in Aspen, CO

I know it’s pretty cliché to be a fan of fall right now, but I do not care. It really is my favorite. I love cool mornings and afternoons. Mornings where you can sip coffee for hours and it tastes so great. I love when the leaves change colors. I also get a spark of inspiration and motivation around this time of year. I’m not sure why but it has always been the case. Currently, a lot of shit is falling into place (no pun intended…or was it?).

Recently, I was accepted into the Breathe for a Change program which I’m really excited about. I applied to them on a whim. They kept coming up on my Facebook feed, I’m sure because I’ve been searching for mindfulness trainings for educators. When I talked to one of their directors, Laurie, I knew I had to make it happen. I loved our conversation and it felt like what I was meant to be doing. So, I am undertaking that. It’s a pricey training but I think it will definitely be worth it. I will be able to help my students develop some social-emotional skills and hopefully, I will be able to do some wellness trainings with other teachers to help prevent burnout among staff.  I have a Donor’s Choose Project up (here) for this if you want to help support, but also in general just check out Donor’s Choose and help any number of teacher’s who are trying to get supplies and curriculum for their own classrooms. It’s a great website.

The condo hunt is well underway. I’m pretty sure this is going to be a REALLY long process. With Denver’s market the way that it is, I often find myself competing with cash investors, which, in reality, means I’m not even an option to most sellers. It has been an exhausting, stressful and at times humorous process (more on that in a different post). However, I’m seeking and ready when it comes along. I’m adulting real hard these days.

Finally, I’m also applying to grad school. I’m applying for the leadership and policy degree at the University of Denver.  This is terrifying for a number of reasons, but they are offering to waive my application fee so I figured what the hell. I’ve been wanting to get into public policy for a while so this will be a good starting point. I feel like there just aren’t enough teachers making decisions about education as there should be.

I’m hoping it’s not just the pumpkin spice lattes and leggings talking, but holy shit this past month alone has been filled with a lot of potential. I’m really excited to see where the next few months takes me and man oh man is 2018 going to be something else!