Day 12: First Day of School

Today was finally the day. 

The day that I had prepared for.

The reason I am in Mexico.

Today was the first day...

I taught English. 

After all the vacation and meeting mi familia, it was time to buckle down and get to work. I was stressing a lot today before I had class because I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know if I would have enough material for the 2 hour classes, if it was even at the children's level, whether or not the kids would behave or even like me... There was a lot of uncertainty when I woke up this morning. 

However! I realized it was Monday, and Monday is always a good day because I get email. I have a dear friend who is serving a mission in Sweden who sends emails out to family and friends weekly. His awesome mom posts them on a blog (so go check it out if you'd like to know more about what he does {Austin's Mission to Sweden: I felt like a greenie again!} ). This email was actually pretty perfect for me and gave me hope. He talked about his recent experience with an investigator. He was called in to help teach someone in french because he used to speak french (before he started to learn swedish). It was interesting to read that even though he prepared like crazy, he still didn't do as well as he had hoped. However, he didn't give up. He went home and studied. He prepared more. I think if that had been me, I wouldn't have done that. It payed off for him though! He succeeded in teaching in french the next day. It's actually better if you just go read the story cause he tells it way better than me. 

ANYWAY. Long story short, I felt like even if I failed today, I could regroup and try again tomorrow. 

So I prepared till my first class started at four. Leslie, my sister was the first to arrive.

We waited for the other girls that were on the roll to be in my class. 

We waited...

And waited...

And waited...

And then...

waited a little longer...

Finally, I decided to start the lesson because who arrives to class 30 minutes late? Seriously. 

I taught my entire lesson with just me and Leslie. It was actually pretty fun. She is very smart and a good learner. It was actually more stressful when my Head Teacher came in to see how things were going.

After the first class, I actually felt a little sorry for the other teachers. They looked like their nerves were being tried to the limit. I was grateful for the tender mercy God gave me today. I can't let this get to my head though. There are always things I can improve on. 

The second class was good too! There were four boys (huh, kinda like home) and they were all really smart and definatly right at the level that I had prepared. I'm waiting for the second shoe to drop though... it's almost too good to be true to have 2 classes where nothing really goes wrong. 

I have a feeling that this semester will be a good one. I will probably face challenges with the kids but for now, I'm glad they were good for me today. It gave me confidence to move on and to take a breath and say to myself, "You're ok. You can do this."

I know that this is going to be a part of my life forever. Teaching. I love it and I love to see kids learning. My favorite part is when you're explaining something and they're struggling but all of the sudden something clicks and they get it! The light goes on. That's why I like teaching. You're teaching these kids truth and as soon as they understand, they get a little more light in their life. Truth is what I love and I can't help but share that. That is why I am a teacher. I love it. :) I love it like crazy.