Las Buenas Nuevas

In English, that means the good news. Here's the good news about what's going on (just to keep my readers - if I have any - well posted!).

Well, sometimes it proves to be difficult figuring out what you're going to do with life. I have found this to be true. So, I evaded the question for a while - but the question has now hit me smack dab between the eyes and I must face up to it, what with ASU and my last two years of college coming up in the fall and all. So... I have made a few crucial decisions, and I feel much, MUCH better.

That's usually a good sign.

Anyway, as some of you (might!) know... I have, for the past two years, been pursuing a degree in education. Bilingual elementary education, to be quite exact. However, as the very thought of standing up in front of kids of any age made me quake in my boots, I was beginning to question that decision. It went from very subtle, half-conscious thinking, to conscious thinking, to a brand new decision. Brand new decisions, I do confess - change in GENERAL - has proved extremely hard for me, but this I have learned: that God is sovereign even over the little details of my life .... like what I'm going to do with the rest of it, and all that good stuff. So, I put it in His hands, and I am now officially pursuing a degree in Spanish, after which I will officially be qualified for a translator's certificate.

Now that's my kind of job.

More than anything, though, I'm a writer. I always have been. Since age 3 I've told my family that I was going to be an author and an illustrator. The illustrating went nowhere, since I figured out very early on that I have no artistic abilities whatsoever. But the writing has stuck. So, as soon as I am graduated with a B.A., a legal adult and the normal age for a college kid (I've decided to embrace my age and forget that it was ever a source of great insecurity), I'm going to, Lord willing, pursue an Associate's in Screenwriting. ! ! ! Everything within me shouts YES!!!! That sounds like the best two years of my life, and I'm duly excited. Maybe I'll use it - maybe not. Point is, I'm doing it anyway. And I don't think it's by accident, either. :)

In fact, I know it's not.
And that's a comforting thought, now isn't it?

Anyhow, now that I have announced the major change, let's talk about small things. I'm taking my first full time semester online at Rio Salado (I've been full time at CGCC for a while now), and am fighting many battles against the grand mystery that is technology. I said fighting - but I'm losing a lot of them. :) I guess it just takes practice. Procrastination, too, is a constant pitfall - one that I don't try hard enough to avoid. God is good, though, and I haven't forgotten any major assignments or papers, as of yet. :)

Secondly, I'm teaching (with plenty help) an Advanced ADVANCED Spanish class for a select few that gather weekly at Pan de Vida, East Valley's Hispanic mission. My students (homeschoolers, and, as my Hispanic friends would say, 'muy listos' : crazy smart) like to call it Advanced Squared. Kinda catchy, huh? We taught our first class this last Thursday, and, scared as I was, it went very well. You'll never find a more attentive set of students, and thankfully, I got my point across somehow. I don't know what I would do without my sister or almost-sister Mexican friend Ruth, whose Spanish, of course, is impeccable and always grammatically correct (which is more than I can boast!).

Other than that, the rest of life is... steady. Steady life, I confess, is sometimes the hardest for me. I'm so dramatic and adventurous and, when life is steady, or routine, I suppose you could say, I've got to make a conscious decision everyday to choose joy. A very, very conscious decision. :) Thank goodness - no, thank the LORD - that I don't have to try to 'choose' on my own.

Well, just a bit of 'buenas nuevas' for you all ... much less serious and deep than some other things I've written, but necessary, too. I hope the Lord is blessing each of You with the grace that only He can give. One last thing, friends - choose joy.