My Leadership Family

"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people."

-Mahatma Gandhi  

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To have a group of genuine and caring people in one classroom is a very rare thing.  I am lucky enough to be apart of the Treasure Mountain Junior High Leadership Class which is full of thirty amazing individuals.  Without this class, I would not have built some of the friendships I have now.  AND I wouldn't be as confident in my abilities as a leader.  I used to be unknown to the student body, quiet, weird, awkward, and unimportant.  Because of this class, I have come out of my shell and shown my peers who I am and what I have to offer.  

Some of the incredible people in my class include: Emma Burke, Samantha Bush, Ben Butcher, Marta Myshrall, Matt Whipple, Micaela Berglund, Emma Louden, Leah Anderson, Lauren MacRitchie, Lane Radovan, Evie Edwards, Elaine Prom and SOOOOO many more.  I am so thankful for the relationships I have built, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. 

(L to R) Claire, Marta, and Elaine at the Utah Allies Dinner
Photo Courtesy of Claire

(L to R) Marta, Emma, Claire, and Samantha at TMJH Registration
Photo Courtesy of Claire

From leadership, I have learned to never doubt myself.  Failure follows self doubt, and I have learned that the most important thing is to love yourself.  By telling myself things will work out, they (almost) always do. I have also gained the ability to have an open mind.  In a room full of opinionated and often bossy teenagers, you have to allow yourself to consider other people's ideas and thoughts.  Everything I do in leadership is collaborative and I wouldn't complete any of my tasks without the help of my classmates. 

Anyone can be a leader, and I have learned that the power of my voice is huge.  If I want change, I can make it happen, and don't need to wait around for anyone else to do it.  I am in control of what happens in my life, and it is important for me to take control of things that I am passionate about.  By simply voicing my opinion things the original path can be altered.  Not everyone is perfect, and I have learned that my ideas aren't always great.  We all fail.  It is important to try and learn from your mistakes.  Yet, you can't learn if you don't throw yourself out there.

To put it simply, I am a better person because of the TMJH Leadership class, and I have all of my classmates to thank for that.  Leadership has changed my life in the best way possible. 

Livspiration

This week, like many other kids at my school, I have the common cold.  I am less than pleasant.  Believe me, I have my days like everyone else.  My voice sounds like I swallowed an old man's voice box.  Yeah, it is that bad.  I am usually a cheery ball of Claireness, but not lately.  To make matters even worse, I try not to cry at school, but I let the tears flow for the dumbest reasons these past two days.

Often times, I feel like I am the friend who helps people through tough times.  I've had my share of rough times, and I wish my friends would have been there a little more.  However this week, only one friend really pulled me out of my selfish, sickly little bubble of grossness: Livi.

Livi and me last year
Photo Courtesy of Mama Claire

Livi is the kind of person who makes you laugh when you want to cry, smile when you are frowning, and giggle at the silly things in life.  I appreciate Livi so much.  She's one of the few people who actually looks on the bright side of life 99.9% of the time. Whenever I am around her, I have a smile on my face.  

Today, Livi was the one who really cared enough to try and bring me out of my awful mood.  To be honest, I don't even know if she was aware that she made me so much better today.  In science and at lunch, Livi was simply herself.  She asked me if I was okay, and even with my response of a thumbs-down, she made me laugh and have a good time. 

99.765658% of the time I am super positive and Claire-y.  But, I am not a "Livi."  Livi just wears a smile and carries it everywhere.  One of her most admirable qualities is how humble she is.  Livi never brags about herself, but there are so many things she could brag about.  For starters, she was moved up to VARSITY lacrosse because her defensive skills are out of this world.  Also, she an amazing ski racer.  She is so dedicated to ski racing and works so hard to be the best she can be.  (And just so everyone knows, she will finish her slalom race this weekend and do a really amazing.)  

I was just perusing her blog and game across a post called, "Healing."  Everything she write is so inspirational and heartfelt.  After reading her entire post, this was my favorite section, 

"Many times in everyone's lives, bad things happen.  

Things that we wish we could avoid, things that we 

wish we could go back and erase.  We look back on the moments 

and the days before these times and think, how could I not 

have seen it?  More times than not with these situations, it seems 

like there were a hundred signs of what was going to

 happen, a hundred signs that we just failed to see.  The truth is 

though, that bad things happen to everyone.  The only truth that we fail

to see is that all we can to is try to heal." 

Overall, I love Livi like a sister.  Every day I learn something from her, and I am honestly inspired.  She's one of my best friends, and I wish I could be more like her.  Livi's energy is so spunky and kind, and by just writing this post, I've become happier.  Thanks Liv :).  

"A Day for Hot Coke (Cocoa) "

Today, I had the best babysitting job EVER.  And I mean EVER.  I have been dying to babysit the cutest kids, L and L2 (code names).  Back at the beginning of January, I gave my number to their mom and hadn't heard from her until this morning when she needed a babysitter after school.  I, of course, said yes even though I had a lacrosse scrimmage around the same time.  Nonetheless, it was so fun.  I already knew L because I was a TA in her preschool class last year and this year (mentioned in "A Teacher in Training.")  However, I didn't know her younger sister, L2, and boy did I have fun getting to know her.

Their mom picked me up after school and we drove to their home where I played with them while she worked.  First, I read "The Velveteen Rabbit" to them, which is a great book and I highly recommend it for everyone.  Then, we snacked and I made hot chocolate for the L2, who told me afterward that she doesn't like hot cocoa.  Don't you love when kids claim to like something and then you waste your time to make it for them and in then, they don't even want it?  Yeah, I do too. *Sarcasm*

My favorite event of all was when L did my hair and told me it looked, "SOOOO beautiful."  It certainly was quite the hairdo.

Please pardon the poor quality, it was taken by a five year
old who claimed to know how to work and iPhone camera.
Photo Courtesy of Mana Claire

Later on, I really wanted to go on a walk, so we voyaged on the road to visit my friend, Samantha, at her house.  I thought the walk would be short, but it took about 20 minutes to get to her house... Mostly because I was carrying L2 on my hip and holding L's hand.  

All I heard the whole time from L was, "Are we there yet?"  "When will we be there?" "This sure is a long walk."  "Claire!  My hands are cold!"  "It sure is a day for hot coke (cocoa)."  

We made the best of it, and Samantha was so excited to see us and even brought us cupcakes :).

We made it back home just in the nick of time and off we went to drop me off at my scrimmage.  L was so interested in my uniform that exactly what I was wearing, and I had a great time attempting to explain it. 

Overall, it was the most fun I've had babysitting in a long, long time.  Mostly because I LOVE these kids and they are so nice and sweet.  If you can't tell how excited I was to babysit them, just as my friends.  It's all I could talk about today. 

Until next time. 

A Teacher in Training

This week, I wanted to write a post about my dream/hope for my future.

Not a day goes by that I don't want to be a teacher.  Ever since childhood, I've wanted to be in the field of education.  I guess you could say it runs in the family as my grammie, my uncle, and my mom are all teachers.  I appreciate my personal teachers because they put so much work into their jobs.  Not only is it one of the most rewarding jobs, but it requires so much energy and love.

A common remark I get when expressing this is that I won't make any money.  To me, this is so stupid to say.  I don't care about money as much as I care about making a difference.  With this being said, I do think that teachers are extremely underpaid for all of the work they do.  After all, they're the ones who supply the workforce with knowledgeable, well-rounded, hard-working workers.  Money may make some people happy, but it is not what makes my world go round.

On another note, I am so lucky to know Kathy Anderson.  She is the Park City School District Preschool Coordinator and also teaches three year old preschool at McPolin Elementary.  In eighth grade, I was able to be her "TA" (teacher aid).  I spent 130 minutes on every white day in her classroom, and I would eat lunch during their snack; it was the best time I can remember.  

It was practically project based learning because I was able to have a look on what it's like to be a real teacher.  Kathy taught me so much about patience, differentiating, and most importantly love.  She loves her job so much, and it's so obvious because the kids adore her.  During my elementary years, I had Kathy as a reading teacher and to this day I remember how much fun it was.

McPolin 3 yr. old class '11-'12
Photo Courtesy of Kathy Anderson

Myself and "L" during recess
Photo Courtesy of Kathy Anderson

As you can see above, I LOVE these children.  I invested my whole heart in their wellbeing and understanding of the lessons, games, etc.  This led me to take online PE this year so I could have an open period...  You can already guess what I did with that; TA for Kathy!!  Unfortunately, I am there for fifteen minutes of the morning class and twenty-five minutes with the afternoon.  Yet, I have decided to look on the bright side and remember how much I want this to be my future job.

Overall, I cannot wait until the day that I can make a difference in the lives of children.  What more is there to life?

Back with the Boys

It's has been a while since I have babysat Pierre and Smiley.  If I am can remember correctly my last time was on New Years Eve.  It was a long, long, long, night.

This past Saturday I was at their house from 5:15-10:45.  I wouldn't call it a late night considering New Years was around TWO IN THE MORNING.  Good grief how long can a person really party???  Anyway, I prefer getting there around 6:30 because the boys are in bed by eight at the latest.  This time, they were barely starting to eat dinner.

Rainbow (their mom) said to me before leaving, "If they don't finish their dinner, no dessert.  They've been pretty naughty tonight..."

Mama Claire at age 5-ish.
Why can't everyone just take a nap once in a while?
(Photo by my mother.)

Well, thanks for sharing.  Truly, I appreciate being forewarned that my evening will be less than pleasant. NOT!!!  After being told this, Pierre was acting like a joyous little boy.  He recited French numbers, finished his meal, and even sat in his chair.  Thank you for making my job just a little easier.  On the other hand, Smiley was having one of those bad days we all have once in awhile.  Let's just say that I don't really want to discuss the rest of dinner.

Later on we played Temple Run and then slowly gravitated toward the television.  This particular night they selected two shows that I don't really remember.  Once the shows were finished, I used my new tactic and said, "BOYS! Whoever can brush their teeth the fastest wins!"  Pierre listened but Smiley was not as convinced of this "winning."

I don't really remember how this all started, but Smiley started screaming and then threw a blanket at my face (check that off the bucket list).  This really put me over the edge.

I got up and said, "Smiley, that is enough!  You're going to bed without a book."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he furiously screamed at me.

At that moment, I realized I had made a blind threat.  There was no way in heck he was going to quietly and obediently go to sleep.  You can probably imagine how the rest of this went.  I don't think I have ever felt so bad for parents before.  Now I know how annoying it is to make a threat and realize that it will not and cannot happen without twenty times more chaos.  I do feel a bit of shame because now Smiley knows that he won't be punished for poor behavior.  Lesson learned.

In reflection, my new goal is to followthrough with what I say.  I will let you know how this goes at a later date....