Turning a Negative into a Positive

I've had a really hard time lately looking for the positive in life. Lately I tend to focus on the negative, which is really easy to do. Well, with some recent stresses at work, my boss challenged me to look for the positive in what I've been doing. I basically told her I would try, but not to count on it. It turns out she proved me very wrong in my thinking, and I am glad she did. Here is the story:

One of my four jobs is a swim instructor. I've been teaching swim lessons for a couple of years now. I usually only have time to teach in the summer, but because I am now a college graduate seeking a job with my degree, I have some more time to put in more hours at my current workplace. I taught lessons this past summer and had an absolute blast doing so. I decided that I would make some time to continue teaching into the fall. Once in a while with swim lessons, you have to teach some classes that are a challenge. Usually, I embrace a challenge with full force and see what I can learn from it. Now, I have never really had a swim class that I could not handle or control until this set that just ended yesterday. All four of my classes were completely out of control. Kids were fighting me as I tried to control them, and parents were giving me nasty looks as I trid to tame their out of control children. (I feel like there are alot of parents these days that do not discipline their children. The way some kids act in public now days I never would have dared to act when I was a child.) I finally had it with my classes and had to turn to my boss. When I talked to her about it I was of course negative and told her I wanted to turn in my resignation notice for my swim instructor job. Honeslty, I really was going to do just that, but she actually told me I should not do so. Instead, she gave me some tips, gave me assistants to help control my classes, and actually sat on deck to ward of the nasty parents. She also gave me a challenge. Not only had I been negative about work, but I had been negative about life and the huge rock wall I feel like I have hit. My boss challenged me to find one positive thing about each one of my classes, and I had to report back to her. I told her I will try, but I probably won't be able to find anything. She basically told me I would be surprised and left it at that. Now, I'm not going to say that all my classes suddenly changed and were happier for me, but I did learn a huge lesson from one child in one of my classes that changed my attitude for the better.

I had the opportunity to have an autistic boy in one of my classes. At first I had to figure out how to work with this boy to teach him how to swim his strokes. It was very difficult. He had a really hard time comprehending my instructions, and I had to learn to change the way I teach in order for him to be able to have the same advantage and opportunity as every other child in the class. I worked hard and was able to succeed at that. As I came to work every day grouchy and mad at what I was being asked to do, this little autistic boy came to the pool with a huge smile on his face, yelling "hi teacher!" to me across the pool deck. Everything I asked him to do, he was so excited to try, even though some swim tasks were very difficult for him. Not once did he get discouraged or down because he couldn't do something. He practiced extra hard, and really did leave my class a better swimmer than he was just two weeks ago. This little boy taught me that yes, we all have our setbacks, but that doesn't mean we should hide from our challenges. We should work harder to conquer the challenges that arise in our lives. Looking for the positive things in my swim lessons did change my attitude, mostly because of this boy. He would often be doing a skill with me and when finished would yell "I did it!" Another experience I had with this boy was when he finished something that was pretty challenging, and as I started to swim to the other side of the pool to help another child he yelled after me "teacher, teacher! I give you hug!" I turned around to see him coming after me in the water to give me the biggest hug. His mom was so incredibly proud of him. I'm really greatful for people that the Lord puts into our lives at certain moments to make our lives better. I'm also so glad I finished out this swim lesson set. I really did learn a big lesson from both my boss, and the autistic boy I taught. I think I'm going start trying harder to change my attitude about life. I really am in a good place right now, and I am going to start recognizing that every day.

Summer 2010

I haven't been around the blog world all summer! Honeslty, I don't really know where I've been all summer. I kind of went everywhere. I've decided to post some pictures of what I did all throughout the summer. Hope you enjoy them! And thanks to Natalie Edge for helping me fix my blog font color. Now it is much easier to see the coloring! Have a great day everybody! We started our summer off with a really fun trip to Disneyland, L.A., and Santa Monica.
We also played in California Adventure.

My mom is so pretty!

We went to the Santa Monica Pier one night. It was so cool! We even saw a beach lifeguard, which for our family is a similar experience to seeing a celebrity.

Santa Monica Beach.

We visited UCLA!

We were pretty much like celebrities driving around L.A. in our California rental car.

Family picture in California Adventure Land.

Spent my birthday flying into LAX Airport, driving to Aneheim, and then partying at Disneyland all day! This is my birthday face.

Hooray!

I had a super bad breakout of my eye virus the last 3 weeks of August. Yeah, it lasted 3 whole weeks! I've never had to take so many different meds at once. I should have taken a picture of my lymph node that my virus lives in - it was just a little smaller than a golf ball, which is too big for a lymhp node to be.

I went biking a few times, but mostly ran my legs off this summer.

Modeled sexy bikinis.

Biking.

Played with my cute nephew, Cole! He's getting so big and sooooo cute!

I guess I want you to see this picture again?

Natalie and I are really cool when we go downtown.

We went to my cousin's wedding. This room we had the wedding lunch in is called the Empire Room at the Joseph Smith Building. This is the same room my parents had their wedding reception in 27 years ago.

Oh Cole, you are so cute! Red is your color. :)

Apparently I was on first aid duty at work this day. Yeah, I have a rough job...

Got to work with all my friends who come home from college every summer to party at the pool.

Emily didn't relly know how to spend her summer.

Finally, we of course spent many Saturday nights at Shavy Jones with our friends. What a fun summer!

I'm Back!

Dear anybody who reads my blog: I have been requested by a friend to update my blog, seeing as I haven't done it in a while. I've consented and want to start writing about my life again, because I have alot to say. This is just a small post to let ya'll know I'm back. Also, I am having some brain issues and need some help: How do I change the font color on my blog so it is easier to read on my dark background?

A long, long time ago...

I've been ripping my room apart this week. It is a huge project, but will hopefully be completed tomorrow! During the process, I came across some old CDs. I put them in my computer and they were all full of high school pictures. I thought it'd be fun to some of them on my blog and tell you about the friends I used to have. Natalie Edge is my idol. She is still tight with my family. She swims for the U, which is awesome! She is a math major. We got to take institute together this past semester.

First of all, this is my family. They are still my family today, and they will be my family forever. I like that. This is at my high school graduation.

This is Megan. She was one of my two best friends in highschool. I don't usually see her anymore, and she doesn't really talk to me. She is engaged now and will be married this summer. I miss her.

Natalie is in this picture. She is still my sister. Her eyes are still just as blue. Timbrell was rebellious towards swimming our senior year. She was an amazing goalie in water polo though! She's now married and has a baby.

My senior year of high school, our girls team took 2nd place in state.

This is Addy. Addy is awesome! She now swims for BYU. I get to see her all summer at work.

This is Chalece. She is my other best friend from high school. Chalece is amazing! She is currently serving her mission in Indonesia.

Not too fond of this boy anymore, but I have to say that my dress was awesome! This was senior ball.

Megan, me Chalece after we won state in water polo.

Me and Rachael are still way tight. She is hilarious!

This boy has not changed since high school. He is still a sweet talker, which doesn't really impress me as much as it did in high school...

This is Tree. He was a way cool friend! He's married now and that's about all I know. His mom is way cool!

These are all the girls I used to hang out with in high school. All of them are either married, or are planning a wedding except for me and two other girls.

This is my Grandma and Grandpa Stapley at my high school graduation. My grandpa passed away from leukemia last fall. I miss him so much. Grandma is doing well and we get to see her quite often which is good. I love them both!

This girl's name is Lauren. This was after she graduated from highschool. She just recently graduated from college with her Bachelor's degree. She's changed alot since high school, and hopes to keep changing for the better. She's trying to find where she needs to be right now, but is having a difficult time. She is learning patience and is learning how to be confident. She is happy.

Oh man, oh man, oh man.....

I'm feeling quite stressed/panicked/irritable tonight. Its hard to explain, because I'm better at bottling up all my emotions and hiding them from the world. I heard that admitting a problem is the first step to recovery, so I'm on my way at least, right?

In good news:

1. Finally got a new lap top charger after months of frustrations with the one that partially worked.
3. Finally got to visit with my visiting teaching partner today. Its been too long since I've seen her, and she is amazing so it made my day.
4. Might go try a run tomorrow. I've been injured, so we will see how it goes.

Final Grades

I just got my final grades for my last semester at the U. For my last semester, I managed to earn a 3.9 GPA! I'm sooooooo happy about this! My cummulative GPA for my entire bachelor's degree ended up being 3.549. Now, I understand that in the real world, no body is going to ask me what my GPA was in college, but I'm still going to party and be happy about my final grades. :)

I know this is super nerdy, but I doing this anyways. At the U, we can access our DARs reports (degree audit reports.) On our DARs, it shows every class I have ever taken at the U. I was looking through all the classes I ever took. I took some cool classes and learned some awesome stuff. Now for the nerdy part, I'm posting every class I ever took at the U on my blog! Yes, I'm doing it!

All Undergraduate classes:
1. Intro to visual arts
2. Intro to environmental studies
3. Fitness for life
4. African American experiences
5. Human development
6. Family studies
7. Middle childhood
8. Whole child
9. Development during infancy and childhood
10. Fatherhood
11. Parent Child Relationships
12. Family economic issues
13. Aging concepts and controversies
14. Experiences of aging
15. Healthy lifestyles
16. Substance use/abuse
17. Emergency first aid
18. Intro to health professions
19. Human sexuality
20. Patient education
21. Community health issues
22. Health and human relationships
23. Stress management
24. Death and dying
25. Living with chronic diseases
26. eating disorder and body image
27. Health concerns of women
28. Alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and violence prevention practices
29. Foundations of health promotion and education
30. Intro to research and assessment
31. Personal resiliency
32. American civilization
33. Statistics
34. College algebra
35. Severe/unusual weather
36. Foundation of nutrition and health
37. Common medicines
38. Psychology
39. Intro to music
40. Intermediate writing

Yikes! Its so weird to think I sat through all those classes and did all the work for them!

I Did It!

I did it! I completed my Bachelor's Degree today! I think today is the happiest day of my life so far. For the past four years of my life, I have been blessed to be a student at the University of Utah. I got my Bachelor's of Science degree in Health Promotion and Education. I did my major emphasis in Consumer Health and also managed to complete a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. I had to work so hard to go to the University of Utah. Not only did I have to work hard with my studies, but I had to work hard away from school to pay for my degree. I am so lucky to have the job I have. It paid my way through school. I also had a lot of family members who pitched in what they could to help. These people I will be forever greatful for. I had lots of family and friends cheering me on for four years. My family is the reason I was able to get a college degree. I'm so proud of myself for what I did. These last four years have definately not been easy, but they are four years I would re-live again in a heartbeat. I'm really going to miss going to the U. I love the school. I loved my major. I don't think I could have done a better thing for myself than to get a degree. I think I went a little overboard with pictures, but I had some great personal photographers (Natalie and Emily), and today and yesterday were two important days in my life that I never want to forget! I still can't believe I did it. Here are some pictures of both my ceremonies.

To start with, I actually had a successful graduation dress shopping trip. I always hate shopping for dresses and skirts. I went out dress shopping, not expecting to find anything very easy. Well, I walked into a store, walked passed a rack, looked at one dress on the rack that happened to be my size, and decided it was fate. I tried it on, loved it, and decided to get it. We definately had to do some model photo shoots before I covered up in my graduation gown.

These next pictures are from the College of Health Convocation on Thursday May 6th. It was a bit chilly up at the U, but I was too happy to notice the cold.

Me and Grandma Stapley. It meant so much to me that Grandma came up to Salt Lake just for my graduations. She even flew on an airplane all by herself to come. It was her first time flying without Grandpa, and we were so proud! I love you Grandma!

In the Huntsman Center before convocation.

Me walking shaking hand with the Health Promotion Professors.

Walking across the stage being careful not to trip.

These are the Bachelor's students from the College of Health. This includes my major, Exercise science majors, Occupational Therapy studies, Communication disorder majors, and Parks Recreation and Tourism majors. I am in there somewhere....

My mom was really tired after the College of Health Convocation. But I think she was happy. :)

Cute, look at my parental units! I'm so greatful to my parents for letting me live at home during college. I'm so greatful to all they did to help me get through it. They have been so encouraging. I'm their first kid to graduate from the University of Utah. They were quite excited about that. My mom was the last in our family to graduate from the U. My dad is a Weber State grad and Maddie and Ben are Utah State grads. It was an honor to sort of follow in my mom's footsteps.

University of Utah Commencement, Friday May 7th. I'm marching in there somewhere. The U had over 7,000 graduates this year! The youngest graduate was 18, and the oldest 74. I feel cool to say that I'm 21 and graduated from college, even though I'll be 22 in a month. It just makes people think I'm ahead, even though I'm not. ;)

Once again, I'm somwhere in the sea of red and black.

Presiden Michael K. Young of the U of U. Governor Huntsman was the speaker. He actually gave a really good presentation. It was motivating and inspiring.

Me and My cousin James graduated on the same day! James graduated with his Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. Congratulations James!

My and my parental units. I sure do love them!

My and my Aunt Judy. I'm so glad Judy was at the graduation today! She is truly inspiring when it comes to education.

My family!

I am so happy today! Today, I will never forget what I did. I really can't believe I'm a college graduate. Now, I have to brag about my Grandpa Stapley once again. During my commencement, I could not help but think of my Grandpa and try to picture him sitting up where my family was. School was one of the most important things to my grandpa. I recently found a card my Grandpa had written to me at my highschool graduation. The things he wrote to me then did not touch me as they did when I read them the other day. I finally realized how cool of a thing I did by getting my Bachelor's degree. Last fall, my grandparents were living with us as my courageous grandpa went through chemotherapy. During this time, I was submitting all of my graduation applications to be able to graduate today. I remember the day I got all my applications turned in. I told my grandpa and he was so excited. I think everyday after that, he made a comment about me graduating from college and how cool that was. Though my grandpa wasn't at graduation in person, I know that he was aware of what I was doing today. He is amazing and I love him. How did I get so lucky to have so many motivating and inspiring people in my life? I will never know, but I am greatful for them all. Go Utes!