GOALS

One year from now:

Personal: I hope to be preparing for grad school (and maybe moving out of Florida). I want to still be pursuing writing, designing, and maybe having more works published.

Professional: I would like to have learned more about who I am as a teacher and/or writer.


Five years from now:

Personal: I hope to be living somewhere that I like and enjoy. I'd like to have a stable source of income and somewhere to live with books and maybe access to a roof. I really like roofs. Ideally, I'd still be designing, writing, and publishing.

Professional: I hope that whatever profession I decide to pursue is fun and interesting. Hopefully, by this point, I'll be pretty good at what I'm doing.

Ten years:

Personal: Mostly the same as five years from now. I just really hope to be happy, above all else. Stable living situation. It'd be a shame if, at this point, I abandoned my creative endeavors, so I hope that I don't.

Professional: By this point, I'd love to be respected and comfortable with my profession. Hopefully my experiences, thus fur, will have shaped me into being strong.

End of Career:

Personal: I'm not sure when my career will end, but I do hope that I'm still happy and doing creative things. I guess at this point I'd love to say I've travelled a decent bit? Fallen in love? Something like that.

Professional: If I haven't become a master yet, I just hope to feel satisfied with what I've done. I don't think pride really has much of a place in my life, but I'd love to be able to feel proud of myself.

Successful Classroom Disciplinarian

In high school, I had an English teacher named Mr. Tiernan. He was one of my favorite, if not my actual favorite, teachers growing up. For the most part, he fostered a relaxing, low-risk environment where mutual respect played a crucial role. Because he spoke to us with interest, and treated our feelings and comments as valid, we did the same for him. I can't recall more than one or two instances where he ever raised his voice, or actually had to discipline someone. I think the reason his students were so inclined to behave properly is because they just genuinely liked Tiernan and didn't want to upset him. So, ironically, he was a successful classroom disciplinarian to me because he hardly ever had to discipline. This isn't because he was gifted the greatest classes or anything, he was just so well-liked for all of the things he did right.

My relationship with Tiernan was great. We never had any disputes of any kind, and I'm sure several of his students over the years can say the same thing.