A Brief Blog: Never Get Sick as a School Counselor.

I'm sure you can guess from the title of this post that I recently got sick and missed a few days of work due to a nasty case of strep throat.  That was my lesson for the week--never get sick.  We luckily had a snow day on Monday, but I missed Tuesday and Wednesday, which was enough to make me never want to miss a day of work again.  As school counselors, we know that we play an integral part in the school community.  Regardless of our importance, however, school doesn't stop when the school counselor isn't there!

That being said, my strep throat was a blessing in disguise.  My co-workers and principals realized that importance I mentioned.  Sometimes, it takes a couple days without the school counselor to realize how much a school needs one.  

A Brief Blog...

Now isn't that the truth.  Mad props to all the school counselors out there for managing our many jobs!  

National School Counseling Week Link Party!

Being a brand new school counselor (literally 27 days in--seriously brand spankin' new here), I am still learning the ropes of not only my school, but also my career.  Though I put in hundreds of hours at my internship learning the basics of being a school counselor, there were still many things I didn't learn, and couldn't learn, until I was actually in a school counseling position.  One of those things I didn't learn was what to do when National awareness days/weeks/months like National School Counseling Week come along.

Unfortunately, I will be putting National School Counseling Week on the back burner as I continue to establish myself and my position in my elementary school.  However, I am one of those lucky elementary school counselors who gets to share the job with a partner--yes, our elementary school has TWO of us!  I was blessed with a partner who I am learning so much from, and I honestly would have gone underwater without her help and guidance these last 26 days.  We work well together, and already have a great relationship.  

Proof of our awesomeness.

Though I may not have planned a bunch of fun announcements, games, contests, freebies, or lessons for National School Counseling Week, I do plan on celebrating my partner this week.  She is only "part-time" but let's be real here, she works full-time hours since she is just THAT passionate about her job and students.  What an amazing woman to be around 2.5 days a week.

Another thing I've adopted this week is the School Counselor Week Instagram Challenge made possible by The Stylish School Counselor.  I love doing these little social media "challenges" so it was awesome to see a school counselor-themed one for a change!  I've posted the challenge below so now you have no excuse not to do it. :)
Next year though I have no excuses!  National School Counseling Week 2015, I'm coming for ya.

We Run DC 2014 -- I'm Running the Nike Womens' Half Marathon!

I have been counting down the days till today--the first day of training for the Nike Womens' Half in DC!  The race is April 27th, and I'm very excited.  I signed up for this race for three reasons: First, I need a change of scenery.  St. Louis is a wonderful city, don't get me wrong, but after doing 3 half marathons here I need something else to look at for those 2 hours on foot.  Second, I have family in DC--free housing!  Finally, the finisher's medal is a Tiffany's necklace, delivered to you on a silver platter by a firefighter in a tuxedo.  It doesn't get much better than that!

My goal time for this race is anything sub-2:00.  My first half marathon I ran in an embarrassing 2:30.  My second was much improved--2:03.  My third--2:06.  I think a time of 1:59 isn't completely out of the picture.  

Here's my favorite race photo to date--from my PR half in October 2013.  I think this picture shows off my personality perfectly.

Anyway, today's distance was an easy 3 miles and I did that at my local gym on the dreadmill.  How is it that I can easily run 3 miles outside, but 3 miles on the treadmill seems like forever?!  To make it worse, I had to wait about 5 minutes for a machine to open up, thanks to the NYE resolution crowd stinking up the place.  I'm all about adopting a healthy lifestyle, but let's face it, most of those adoptions fall out by mid-February.  Another thing that peeved me was that my Nike+ Running app wasn't working so it didn't log my pace for my run.  Alas, I got the 3 miles done and successfully checked off day 1 of training.  Yay!

1% complete in the Nike Womens' app...well that's a little depressing.  

Square One

I've been thinking about starting a blog for over a year now, as I was approaching the end of my graduate career and finally becoming a school counselor after 7 years of preparation.  Being a perfectionist, I struggled with creating the perfect blog name--I would think of one, claim it on Blogger, but never post since I'd change my mind a few days later.  Life is hard being a perfectionist, especially when it gets in the way of doing the things I want to do because I obsess over details.

A year ago, I picked up a new hobby--running.  Being a full-time paraprofessional as well as a full-time graduate student, I wanted something that defined me that had nothing to do with school or work.  A classmate of mine put forth the idea of running a half marathon together.  She had suggested this in October, with the half marathon being the following April.  Sure, I said.  I could definitely train for and complete a half marathon in the 6 months prior to race day.  Training was definitely a challenge for me, but was well worth it when I crossed the finish line in the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon in April 2013.  This feeling of accomplishment was more than enough to continue with this hobby and make running part of my lifestyle.  I went on to run two more half marathons in 2013.

December 2013 was a monumental month for me.  I interviewed for a big-girl position as elementary school counselor, and was offered the job before I even graduated from my program.  I started my school counseling career the week of my graduation.  I graduated from the University of Missouri - St. Louis with my Masters in Counseling.  What a month!  I have never felt so successful, blessed, and confident in my abilities.  

Now that I've accomplished my big goals of running a half marathon (or three), graduating with my Masters after 2.5 years in a school counseling program, and embarking on my career as a professional school counselor, I can start working on another one of my goals--creating a blog where I can write about my two greatest passions: running and school counseling.  I might be crazy to pick up another thing that will eat up my time, but I know that it will be a good outlet for me.  If I'm lucky, it will be a good resource for all those runners and school counselors out there.  We'll see :)