My gymnastics job at Larkins (in Columbus) went really well.  It only lasted for seven weeks but my kids improved a lot and they all moved up to the next level.  At the “end of the quarter party” I was given the award for “Coach of the Quarter.”  I got a beautiful huge green sweatshirt and a free pizza lunch.  I was so excited about the award. It had been a frustrating quarter trying to get used to the kids and the way things were done in the gym.  My preschool class was horrible.  It was the last hour of the day and my kids refused to talk to me.  They were really young and I couldn’t communicate with them.  You can’t yell at kids when they’re too young to talk to you. I was worried about them getting hurt.  Plus their parents were paying for them to be taught gymnastics and there was no way that was going to happen unless their kids settled down.  The last week things all gelled together.  I was actually able to get all five of my preschoolers to do forward rolls, straight jumps, and straddle jumps.  I was really proud of them.  We spent most of the class in the big foam pit.  All the kids love the pit.  It’s like a small swimming pool filled with foam blocks.  The coaches throw their kids in and the kids just jumps and climb in it.  It wasn’t as hard to say goodbye to these kids as it was to say goodbye to my ones from Fairmont.  The program will start back up again during winter quarter and I’m sure I’ll have my “wonderful” preschoolers again.
 

By Thanksgiving break I had definitely gotten myself into a routine.  I would go to class, maybe study a bit, go to another class, go to work and then come home and sleep.  I spent a lot of time with my friends working on building relationships and forming a support group.  I got involved in a Bible study with some kids off campus, which was awesome.  I had been attending a messianic congregation about half an hour away from the campus, but I wasn’t happy their.  The congregation was filled with mostly adults and a few babies.  The Bible study had more kids my age in it and I met some really cool people.  Most of them were upperclassmen but they gave me great advice about which classes to take and how to deal with finals.

I’m still not sure how I’m going to have to deal with taking my first real set of finals, but what I’ve realized is that midterms are not in the middle of the quarter and they don’t cover half the material.  Midterms occur three times a quarter with the last test known as the final.  The tests seem to focus mainly on the newly learned material with only a few questions from the old stuff.  I’ve got a few different people to study with for my different classes so I should be fine.

Going home for Christmas break should be interesting.  I’m suddenly going to have to go from living under my own rules to living under my parents’ rules, which are two totally different concepts.  I foresee a huge fight breaking out about my curfew (which is still 11:00) and my wonderful habit for sleeping all day.  My mom is trying to plan my whole break for me not realizing that this is MY break and I don’t want to spend it in Baltimore with my grandma.  All my military guys are coming back up to Fairmont and I can’t wait to see them.  Justin and I have planned several movie nights and shopping trips.  Our whole lunch crowd is going to get back together and meet up at school one day, just for old times sake.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story.  This has been a wonderful project and I would love to thank my English teacher Bob Eckhart for inspiring us to complete this assignment.  I have learned a lot about myself that I never would have realized without him.  I also want to thank my friends for giving me the stories to tell.  Please send me any comments.