{things that make me happy} giving back

I was an awkward child.

There may or may not have been a phase when I refused to wear anything but sweatpants. There were six years of braces (yes, six). There were a few perms, a lot of spandex, and then there was definitely a time that I got a bowl cut so my brother and I would look like twins.

Then there was junior high. There was a transfer out of my original district - a transfer that was necessary because the new school was the only one with an "honors" program in the area. So I was in a new school, and I started out with the nerd thing. Then there were still the braces, the baby fat, and eventually, another perm (before puberty laughed and stuck me with curly hair for life). My uniform was an oversized sweatshirt with oversized jeans. My curly, frizzy hair was always in a bun. I made a concerted effort to excel at being average; to blend in and avoid any reason for others not to like me. So one would say there was a whole heck of a lot of... average.

But there was also a lot of music. And art. And happiness.

There's been a lot of average in my short little life, and a whole lot of awkward. But the one thing that has always been my happy place, the one thing I was always, always good at, was the arts. If there is one thing that makes me sad above all else, it is that art and music education are being cut from our schools because they are not considered important!

So, the {thing that makes me happy} today is...

I was offered a position in the Vail School District to be an after-school art instructor! So four days a week for an hour or so, I will be teaching Kinder through 3rd graders art essentials through a program called KidzArt.

I can't begin to explain how excited I am to give back some of what made me what I am, to maybe replace a little bit of awkward with a lot of fun, creative education!

{ps} pictures make everything better... me, circa 1988, post-perm, pre-bowl cut and the year I started playing the piano.