One elusive goal would be to travel and eat everything without gaining a pound. In addition to wanting to travel all over, I would want to sample and try all these amazing foods. One can dream, to eat whatever they want and not gain anything.. ahh the life.

Another goal would be to spend my time giving back. Teaching is such a gratifying career, but sometimes dealing with ungrateful students makes it challenging to see the good in  it. I would love to take a sabbatical someday and go to an underdeveloped country and give back. In one of my last posts I wrote about giving back and random acts of kindness. I think it shapes your character and how you view yourself and others around you. It’s the little things you can do to help which counts.

I’d also love to read minds and know what other people are thinking, now that’s really elusive!

….would be Santorini, Greece. For some reason every picture I see of Greece, especially Santorini is beautiful and breathtaking. It is definitely on my bucket list of places to go to someday. I would also love to go see the Northern Lights. Being on pinterest, I have a whole board of places I’d love to travel to and one day I’d like to see them. (http://pinterest.com/pam_ashley/favorite-places-and-spaces/). I’ve been fortunate to have traveled a bunch already. I’ve been to Spain, Italy, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Israel and the Caribbean. They say “travel is the only thing that makes you richer” and I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve had 4 teachers throughout my life that have made an impact on me. My first grade teacher, Ms. Melisurgo was one of my favorite people. She was energetic, happy, creative and always made me feel special. As a 6 year old child, this was something that was very important. She always encouraged me to do my best and til this day, she is always something I think of who inspired me to become a teacher. Much like my first grade teacher, my 6th grade teacher, Ms. McNamara always taught us to stand up for our rights and if we didn’t like something to question it. She gave me the self confidence to stand up for myself when I didn’t agree with a situation. As I got older, and started having teachers for 40 minutes a day, it became a little harder to connect with them. My 8th grade home and careers teacher, Mrs. Lundquist was another huge inspiration. I always enjoying going to her class and her jovial spirit. She was another redhead, so we totally bonded and now, as a colleague, we have become great friends. She went from teacher to mentor for me. My Spanish teacher in high school, Ms. Larrea was another teacher who probably had the greatest impact on me. I had her for 3 consecutive years and we became really close throughout that time. She understood that her students had lives outside of school and was understanding to our individual needs. She was tough when the time called for it, but also easy going. I see a lot of my own teaching style in her and I’m proud to say I have some of the same relationship with my students as I did with her. She was always there for me if I needed an adult (who wasn’t my parent) to talk to and it’s nice that I’m that figure for some of my own students.

…would have to be a picture book, kidding. I’d love to write a book of “If I knew then, what I know now” It’s amazing how looking back on certain events in my life and how they were handled were so miniscule and not that big of a deal, hindsight is 20/20. As a high school teacher, I hear all my students high school drama and I can remember being 16/17 and thinking it was the end of the world when something happened. Now when my students come to me, I try to just reassure them that its not that trivial and there are bigger fish to fry. As we get older, our “drama” changes and we learn to handle it differently. I feel the book would be a mix between “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”

At this point in my life, I would have to say that I would most resemble Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. Aside from the whole “fashion” thing, she has a solid group of girlfriends that she considers her family and has some of the most obscure dating stories / relationships. I’ve had the same group of childhood friends that I have now. My group of friends are amazing and it makes me so happy that we’ve managed to all stay close despite growing up, moving away from home and following our own paths in life. Much like the girls always had breakfast together once a week, my group of girlfriends and I always get together the Friday after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time that we’re all in town and at this point, it is just known that we’re getting together. It’s a nice little tradition that we’ve started. Another area of my life similar to Carrie’s is her dating / relationship life. I feel that Carrie always went on these “interesting” dates or had these “not-so-normal” relationships. When I talk about my dating and relationship experiences with my friends they always tell me that I should write a book or blog about it. At least, I know I would definitely have a few devoted readers to it.

My passions are a wide array of things. I’ve always had a “passion for fashion”. This passion lead me into my undergraduate degree, but ultimately wasn’t the career path I chose to carry out. After I became a teacher, I developed a huge passion for giving back and doing random acts of kindness. This started with my first school I taught at. During the holidays, teachers were able to “adopt” a child. This entailed buying them something on their list. I was given whether it was a male or female, their age, their size and what they wanted. I chose 2 boys and had to buy a Jets sweatshirt and a baseball glove. I remember my parents asking why I chose 2 kids instead of one. I explained to them that I grew up getting whatever I asked for. I never had to worry about not having something because they were able to provide me with it. If the least I can do is buy a child his sweatshirt and baseball glove for the holidays, I would do that. This continued into my current district and adopting a family to provide a food bag for the holidays and through breaks and the summer. Although, they don’t know who is sending it, I feel good knowing I am making a difference. I also began practicing random acts of kindness with my students and the response from other members of the staff has been tremendous. Although I have many materialistic passions, I’d have to say that being able to give back surpasses all of those things.

…I’d open up my own boutique. My undergrad degree is in Fashion Merchandising Management and as much as I love fashion, my heart wasn’t there when it came time to look for jobs. Eventually, I would love to open my own store selling handbags, jewelery, accessories and home decor merchandise. the store would be a mix of modern and vintage antiques and be called Mella’s. (Yes, I’ve given this a lot of thought). I’d also love to have a job naming nail polishes, crayon colors and ice cream flavors. I think some of the names are so creative and I would love to name these products. It just seems like a lot of fun. I have no idea how one would get this job though.