Someone get me a participation trophy - SCHOOLS OUT!!!!

This is a tribute to the participation trophy and every kid and person who receives one. I'm giving myself one today, figuratively. I participated in being a teacher at JCCHS this year, and I need to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who made it possible!!

So here's my I-Made-It Acceptance Speech:

I LITERALLY could not have made it through this year of teaching without the people around me. Marshall is supposed to have been the one who had a hard year-- his first year of Law School! But he has been overwhelmingly loving and supportive. "How can I help you?" and "I'm sorry your day is so hard" are the things he said SO often that helped me get through. He's amazing--really. I'm amazed I get to be his wife!

Jessica and Michael, my two bffls from school, have been a Godsend!! We've literally walked through this year together -- our walks around Five Points helped me feel connected to JCCHS and not alone in my role there AND gave me a place to vent and process things. And exercise!! I LOVE Y'ALL!!!! And I'm so glad I don't have to miss y'all because we'll still see each other next year and this summer!! We have to. :)

Conversations with my friend Ashley almost daily in the car at 7:00am took my mind off of the day ahead and kept me joyful. Ashley, you've OFFICIALLY seen me at my embarrassing worst. And Lauren and Avery and Ciara and Jenn, I can't WAIT to spend the summer hanging out with y'all!!

My parents, in-laws, and family, and my d-group (Kaitie, Karen, Mollie, Katie, Helen, and Erika) were SO supportive and sympathetic when I cried involuntarily. My mom cried with me when I had a hard day earlier this week--so sweet!! And our community group was SO supportive and caring -- "How many days left, Rachel?"

Sara Samchok, you reminded me: "Rachel Sims is not a quitter." Nope. And now I'm DONE!!!!!

And lastly, thank you to our pastor Matt Adair and to UGA and to Stephen Kump / Calvin Edwards and Company-- who are the means God has provided for me to change gears and work towards a new career path!! I feel so blessed and excited to learn from the opportunities ahead. Starting on TUESDAY!!!

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I have never done anything as difficult as this year. [Disclaimer: If your life has actually been hard, you may want to stop reading here, because my life is not actually  that difficult.]

Summers as a counselor at Camp All-American were really hard, but that was just because I was tired. Running track and cross country in high school was really hard, but practice lasted, what, 2 hours? and I was running with my best friends. And I love running. Being apart from family and friends when I went to Spain was hard, but I was on a european adventure of a lifetime, and I made some great friends. My senior year of college was hard because I was tired and overworked. . .

And I feel like perseverance is sort of something I've focused on developing through a lot of things in my life--my dad ran marathons when I was little, and my mom has stayed joyful despite tons of hard things in her life--so I feel like I have a strong foundation of perseverance from them. But this year took persevering to a new level for me.

Reasons I quit teaching:

1. It made me someone I don't want to be. It made me angry. It made me unmotivated. It made me dislike nice people. It made me unable to see that people are nice people. I had to tell funny, interesting young people to be quiet all. the. time. I had to execute something I felt was mediocre day after day, without the time, training, or resources to turn mediocrity into excellence.

2. I didn't see any hope of becoming someone I want to be. Once I decided not to teach, the responses I got from coworkers were things like "Good for you-- most of us have been in it too long to change now." or "RUN. As fast as you can."

3. It isn't actually that relational. My smallest class was 33 (biggest 36). I love kids and wanted to help them grow and learn . . . but turns out most of them didn't really want to do that, and there were too many of them for me to be able to focus on the ones that did!

Lastly, can I just say there are some AMAZING teachers at JCCHS. There's one lady in particular (Mrs. Laura Caldwell :) ) who is the sweetest, salt-of-the-earth person ever. She thinks the best of others, and she listens to them. She is a precious gift to the kids at Jackson County--and they know it!!