Quelqu'un m'a dit

Salut!

I'm guessing the people who read my blog already know this, but just in case: Next Sunday I start the training process as a corp member of Teach for America.

For the next two years I will be teaching high school French in Kansas City, Missouri.

I am...

excited

terrified

overwhelmed

unprepared

nervous

and so so thankful for all of the support from my friends and family.

If you were wondering about the law school thing, lol, I deferred my admission to Notre Dame and will start there in Fall 2013. Go Irish! ;)

Adult life is flying towards me and I have never felt so young and so old at the same time. In about seven weeks (seven!) I'll have a classroom of students who will probably look older than me and this incredible responsibility to teach them.

But I'm sitting on my (Andie's) couch in the Maisonette and I'm still finding it very hard to believe that I'm not going to wander around in Haley Center for a class in the fall. That I won't wear pearls to football games (well, ok, I probably still will, but you know what I mean) and that I won't learn any choreography for a Singers show. Craaaazy.

I'm thankful to have no regrets and no real longing for the past. I'm glad for my fond memories of the past four years in Auburn and the past 19 in Alabama. But I know in my heart that these next few years and whatever follows them is going to be exactly God's plan for me.


So with that, I'm going to try to blog while I'm in LA for training, but I probably won't get to much. Follow me on twitter, skype me, force me to stay in touch. :)

<3
With love

Shelli

Thnks fr th Mmrs

Thank-you


for the nights in the Harper Hall lobby watching youtube videos and "studying" for calculus and chemistry

for flag decorations and watching the OC instead of studying

for the Freshman Forum meetings when Amanda was there... and we ignored her

for progressive stories in Chem and at Steak N Shake

for the first time I saw the eagle fly

for the Little Lovers socials

for Harper Hotties

for the lemonade debacle of 2008 O-Days

for unplanned trips to Tuscaloosa

for the 3am crisis calls

for choreography parties

for Greg and Kenneth parties

for 603 parties

for night's at Stuart and Paul's

for ridiculous warm-ups and Elijah Rock for the 3rd time

for Little Shop rehearsals (and the semester of I can't, I have rehearsal)

for failed attempts to have a youtube show

for successful musical scripts (if only we'd finish those last 2 monologues)

for Greased Lightning and Chattanooga Choo Choo... both better the 300th time around

for the nights in the SGA office... even when I wasn't in SGA

for creativity nights with fiction writing, painting, and John Mayer

for photo shoots at Samford and in Opelika

for the 2am drive back from Georgia. "You know what they say... give a man a fish"

for impromptu lake trips

for Crawfish Boil 2008, it'll never be better

for lunches at Toomer's

for breakfast at Big Blue

for study dates at Toomer's Coffee

for post-show Buffalo Wild Wings

for campaigns and campaign t-shirts and concourse dances and billboard painting

for days in the office that were utterly unproductive but so fun

for karaoke with the CWE cult

for successful fundraisers

for failed fundraisers

for every service event

for every meeting (well, most of them)

for listserve emails

for not telling me in advance about Taylor Swift

for standing outside the hotel and conference center until she came out

for the West Virginia game

for mornings in the President's Box

for Beat Fiji Year, Beat ATO Year, and Beat Farmhouse Year

for lemon drops

for dancing and drink specials

for jokes about making out with 15 year olds (never gets old)

for weeks in Gulf Shores, trying to find dance clubs

for art museums in DC

for catch phrase

for band parties and toga parties

for Dr. Troy's fiction class

for Dr. Burkhart's into to the psych major class

for Dr. Mattson's lab meetings

for every game day date, every road trip, every Tuesday night at 6:00

for singing the alma mater at the end of meetings

for singing the national anthem at the end of meetings

for every time I wore a blue suit and pearls with 24 of my best friends

for every time I put on sequins and poufed my hair

for Winter Song

for alto sectionals where we got nothing done and everything done at once

for party dress jokes

for Shoney's... twice.

for awkward small shows

for formals and weddings and socials

for letting me be one of the blacks and part of the black caucus

for Sundance Sundays at the Maisonette

for Twitter and #superlonghashtags

for iron bowl victories

for rolling Toomers and loving Toomers

for Toomers for Tuscaloosa

for a National Championship

for the music

for believing in the human touch

for blessing me with the Auburn family

for the perfect college experience

War Eagle.

For Good

[disclaimer: I have never done anything this cheesy in my life and probably never will (until I have to leave Singers of course). So no making fun. haha.]

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who helped us most to grow if we let them... and we help them in return.


Well I don't know if I believe that's true - but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you.


Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun. Like a tree that meets a boulder halfway through the wood... Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you... I have been changed for good.


It well may be that we may never meet again in this lifetime, so let me say before we part - so much of me is made of what I learned from you... you'll be with me like a hand print on my heart.


And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea. Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood...

Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you...

I have been changed for good.

And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for...

But then I guess we know there's blame to share. And none of it seems to matter anymore...

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?


I do believe I have been changed for the better...



Because I knew you I have been changed for good.


Thank-you for teaching me more than I ever learned in a class. Thank-you for being the most amazing people on an amazing campus. Thank-you for accepting me and loving me and challenging me to be the best person I can be every day for the past two years. And thank-you for the best years of my life. War Eagle.