Things my eyes have seen and my ears have heard...

This has been an extremely long week for several different reasons which I will not name here but it has been long!!!! There are some very funny moments I have experienced this week so I thought I would share a few of those...

1. Bachelor Monday nights... 8 girls over and it's like we're watching Monday Night Football... so fun and the comments that are given are hilarious but I have to say that my favorite comment comes from my sis, on a weekly basis, back in Georgia... saying, "I can't believe you guys got me addicted to this crap!"
2. I am having a hearing problem in class this week apparently because I cannot understand what these kids are saying... we were talking about exports in South American countries... D raises his hand and answers and I say, "Tobacco yes," and the whole class laughs and says, "No, he asked to go to the bathroom." My bad!
3. Wednesday, I am selling tickets for the basketball game and they are playing music for the boys halftime. They begin to play "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift and every kid in the gym sings the entire thing, including this boy on the other team who looks like he's probably beat up a few kids... oh my gosh, I was dying.
4. When going over our warm-up Friday morning about the West Indies, there was a question about U.S. dependencies there. There are two of them: Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands... so of course S (being the commentator that he is) raises his hand and says, "Are there only virgins that live in the Virgin Islands?" Reasons I want to smack kids sometimes? That would be one of them... wow.

Good, amazing moments of the week...
1. G finally returned on Friday after a week of trouble and I was glad to see his precious face.
2. J did his work in 3rd period, can't believe it and I didn't even have to beg him to do so!
3. Sunshine/Queen Bee actually did her work in 3rd period too! I think this class is experiencing a makeover!
4. R had his LVA audition on Saturday which he was very nervous about but I'm sure he did wonderful and is also asking questions to Keisha about church and things of that nature!
5. Zak came to visit... I miss my adopted son... still calls me mom... and I just love him to death!
6. Spent time with friends on Friday night and we went to see "When in Rome"... so cute!
7. Got to hang out with Michaela Friday and Saturday night... it's been so long! and I saw little Lizzie... Shannon and Kevin's baby girl... she's adorable!
8. Talked to the one and only Micah... it's funny how hearts change but people really are genuinely the same. It is always refreshing to talk to him!
9. MattieO brought $80.00 this week for Pennies for Patients... what a hero... that whole class loves him, that's for sure!

I think that is all so it has been a better week than I imagined... now onto catching up for being gone a week and grading and such things! Should be fun, right? Happy Sunday!
-Melis

Legacy.

I sat in a room today of grief and mourning, of sorrow and tears, yet I have not felt in a long time that I actually know someone who leaves behind a great legacy of love, happiness, smiles, and good laughs. It is always awkward for people to talk to you after someone in your family has passed, it's like they're at a loss of words, I completely understand because I have been in that same place. You walk through the line apologize and tell them how great he or she was but you're sometimes not sure if you meant what you said or you said what you meant. However, I believe that last night as I was standing in the line next to Cole and Trista and Courtney at the receiving friends for Poppa that what they said they meant, what they meant they said. "He was a good man." "He was always a jokester." "He loved you grandkids more than anything." "You know he loved you, he talked about you all the time." "You were so blessed to have such a great grandad." "We're really going to miss him." "He is really going to be missed." "He was such a sweet man." "He always asked how my family was." Poppa was a man who genuinely cared about people and he showed it, now whether he was always that way? I don't know but I know that he has showed more love and affection than almost any other granddad on earth and I'm not just saying that because he's mine. I'm saying that because it's true. We knew, I know, that he absolutely loved me... that he was very proud of me... that he missed me while I was in Vegas... that he was so glad that school was going good for me... that he was glad I liked church in Vegas... that he was glad I had good friends in Vegas... he was proud that I graduated high school and college and he was proud that I had a job I loved. Most people don't get the blessing of having a grandfather like Poppa but I did and I am so thankful that he taught me the things that he did and that he loved me the way he did. He left a pure hearted, loving legacy on everyone around him and Gammy even said today that he would be so excited to know how many flowers he had gotten because he didn't think anyone would care. I think what he did, he will never know the consequences of or the effects or the ending but I'm glad I got to see a glimpse of it and I got to see a part of it. He lived his life on purpose. Dale, who did part of the funeral today, talked about how Poppa used to ask him to pray for his brothers and sister, especially if something had happened. I never even knew that... he always told Dale that God had a purpose and I am proud that I had Poppa as a significant part of my life. I may have been a huge change in his life when I was born, but I know that he has a great, great impact on mine and will continue to do so as I choose to live in a way that people will want more of and I will love in a way that people will see is different. I know you're in Heaven Poppa, and I know you're talking with Billy and walking with Connie and her kids... believe me, we are so proud to have you and so thankful that you played such a big part in our lives. You will never, ever be forgotten and you will be greatly missed. I love you, I really, really do.
-Melissa "Missy" or "Sassy"

Why I Want To Be Like Him...

Let me preface this by saying, I do want to be like Jesus more than anything but there are also other people in my life who have made a huge difference in my life and one of those people is my Poppa. I got a call this morning from my Mom saying that Poppa passed away. It just doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem like it could really happen. I just saw him a few weeks ago and he was a little bit sick but he was happy and never took anyone's spotlight. So because I always make list, here it is as to why I want to be like Poppa.
1. He never EVER stopped smiling.
2. He always gave a hand to those who needed it.
3. Every little girl at church adored him because they knew he was the one who always had good gum with him.
4. He never complained and had more patience than any person I know.
5. He was a hard worker and always was there to help.
6. He loved my family like no one else and never showed or said otherwise.
7. He loved card games and puzzles and people.
8. He sometimes would call just to call and everyone knew him as Poppa.

He will be greatly missed and he is greatly loved more than he could even know or understand. Make sure you tell those you love that you actually do... you never know unfortunately.
Love, Melis

What Really Matters...

Today I went to visit a church with Vanessa and Rae. The church service was good, the music was awesome and the pastor is honestly just a guy that is passionate and driven and just great. It was nice. After that, we had lunch and we were talking about a college group that's coming out in March and what they were going to do be going and then Haiti was brought up. Talk about heart breaking, I don't know that it was necessarily the conversation or really just my heart. I have thought about it since DJ Franny mentioned it the other day on the radio, since my mom was talking about the missionary that my home church in Georgia supports who lives in Haiti, since God has more than given me a heart for humanitarian aid and just people in general really. I have thought about what I could do, what my kids could do and what we as people should do.... because I decided today as I have several times before that I want my life to matter. I want to do things because of Jesus and people be changed by it. I want to remember that His glory is what matters and that ultimate glory comes because of His children. We have been chosen to do what matters, to think about what matters, to be about what matters, to serve and live and love those around us, including those in other countries. I sometimes think that what I do makes no difference but that is honestly only because I choose to not make a difference. So today I am choosing to make a difference, I will choose to do what really matters, to talk and advocate for things that really matter... like AIDS, hunger, clean water, tsunamis, earthquakes, poverty, people and right now, an earthquake in Haiti that has killed almost 100,000 people.

Encouragement for the day: Do what really matters. "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." -Maya Angelou

What if...

I have asked myself a lot of "What if" questions today and even over this past year so I thought I would list those below.... just think...

What if.... I faced my fears and told him that I liked him? Would it have changed anything? What if I was brave? What if I learned how to fly after walking and running? What if I didn't learn, what if I just tried? What if I left? What would people do without me? How would it be different? What if I just was honest? What if I became a pessimist and not so much of an optimist? What if I stopped being a realist? What if I trusted my heart more? What if I trusted God more? How would my life be different? What if I embraced my insecurities and made them securities? What if I was okay with just being me? What if I wasn't ever lonely? What if I fed the homeless, even though he looked extremely dirty and smelled like alcohol? What if I gave him money? What if he spent it on drugs? What if I trusted him enough to use it for something that he actually needed? What if I trusted? What if I was married and had kids already? What if I wasn't married and did foster care without a husband? What is wrong with either scenario? What happened to me? What if I lived at school? What if I got a Master's degree? What if I moved back to Georgia? What if I didn't like the school as much? What if I didn't like my kids as much? What if I helped a kid and changed their life? What if I stopped worrying and stressing over the small things and I started over and I decided it is okay to be me, it's okay to think, it's okay to worry sometimes and other times it's okay to face my fears, fight my insecurities, and trust the God who loves me? What if you did the same? How would you change?
-Melis

Everything's Changing

"We emphasize that we believe in change because we were born of it, we have lived by it, we prospered and grew great by it. So the status quo has never been our god, and we ask no one else to bow down before it." -Carl T. Rowan

Each new year brings about change. Over time, things change, we change, and we attempt to go on, to move on to bring about more change because we, like the quote above hate to stay in one place. We complain that we do not like change, when in reality, if everything always stayed the same, we would be so upset. I loved the quote I found above today because we are all products of change as well as agents of change. We came from change and we have the power to change. We do not have to live by the status quo in order to succeed and in fact, if we live by the status quo, we will not be successful. If I had wanted everything to stay the same in teaching, I would not have been given the job. I must move forward, I must go ahead and everything in ME should halt and bow down to the fact that change is part of life. Sticking to the status quo would make me even more unhappy than I sometimes am. I have to change, I have to move, I have to get up and brush off the pity party and go. I have to move forward, I have to change. May you remember today that you have the opportunity to be the agent, the person, the initiator of change, make it positive! -Melis

"Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it." -Harry Emerson Fosdick

I Have a Dream!

Written by Martin Luther King Jr.
Adapted by Melissa Gillespie (for a "Teachable Moment" that has inspired me more than it probably will them)

…I cannot walk alone.
And as I walk, I must make the pledge that I shall always march ahead.
I cannot turn back…

…I keep in mind that I have been through trials and tribulations… I have endured much loss and defeat. I lived in a town that said I would never leave and a society that said I would never graduate high school. I came from a society that said I wouldn’t attempt to go to college and that I would never pass up my peers. I came from a grandfather that only went to school through 8th grade and who let me fill out his checks in middle school because he couldn’t see or read it. I came from a family who only saw that girls get pregnant, then married. I came from a family with underpaid jobs but were the hardest workers, and the one red light town that I grew up in said I wouldn’t make it… but I go back knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

I will not sit in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though I face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and care for those who are without rather than worrying about war and money and spending… that our country would take more pride in the people that we invest in and what they need, rather than what we get out of it.

I have a dream that one day in the place that I came from that people will stand together, rather than a part and will work toward a cause, not toward hatred.

I have a dream that one day even those that are seen as the greatest hate crime offenders and those who cannot stand in the same room as someone different will work together for a greater good and will achieve what Mother Teresa considered the most important work… love.

I have a dream that my family will one day adopt children from other countries and places and different backgrounds where they will grow to learn, love, and appreciate other cultures, languages, foods, and most importantly, that they would learn to value people and the families and traditions that they know well from their past.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day students will learn to get along and it will not matter what city they came from, what color their skin is, what color their t-shirt is, how expensive their clothes were and what kind of music that they listen to, that they will stand together and work toward a greater cause… that they will not be held back by what the world believes about them, that they will initiate change, that they will not accuse and excuse the hatred the world, that they will not be silent, that they will have a voice, one louder than has ever been heard, and they will not settle, that they will reach their goals and work toward higher ones, that they will not lower themselves to the expectations of other people, that they will remember the greater cause and work toward that, that they will be remembered as a generation who made a difference, not the empathetic, no good things that so many people have forced them to believe they are.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day grace will be extended to all people that they may know a love deeper and greater than they have ever felt or experienced, that they will know freedom because they have tasted and seen it and felt it flowing through their veins like blood and they will take into consideration those that are longing for the same love and they will extend that love and grace to them.

This is my hope and faith. With this faith we, together, will be able to beat the odds and come together to understand one another.

This will be the day when all men are free, that no one has to work out of debt or despair and that no child has to thirst or hunger, and that no woman has to worry about being degraded by a man or group of people who do not value her because she is “just a woman.”

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Good Morning 2010! My, How You've Changed!

Every year since 2000, New Year's has been a source of anxiety for me.... what will it be like? How will the world change? How will I change? What will be said of me? How will I respond? Etc. However, when in the year 2000 came, I began my 2nd semester of my 9th grade year, had my first crush on a senior (who is still an absolute amazing guy), went to my first homecoming dance, flew on a plane for the first time, got my driver's license and became a Believer in Christ. How was I to know that one year could hold so much? I am expecting only more this year because my life has changed so much over the past decade (holy cow... 10 years ago I was in my first year in high school), I graduated high school and college, moved away to go to college, moved away from college, got into my career as a teacher, traveled to Europe and Africa (and even to the Middle East unexpectedly), went to 3 Proms, lived in a city that no one could have ever imagined I would live in, and now I spend most of my life pouring it back into 13 and 14 year olds just like I was 10 years ago and I love it.

I can only believe that 2010 will be amazing. I mean really, it started out by Delta giving me a 1st class seat because I've flown so much recently. My resolutions for the new year seem to be carried over from recent years... some being met, some not so much... However here goes...
1. Speak out for those who have no voice in my classroom, to my friends, to people who want to help.
2. Share my beliefs and my God with someone who has no beliefs and no hope.
3. Be hope and light and encouragement to at least 20 people, even with a simple smile, a simple handshake or a meal.
4. Be a good listener... realize that the world doesn't have to stop and listen to everything I say... but sometimes someone else needs me to listen.
5. Laugh... and laugh and laugh and laugh until I cry.
6. Be available and usable where I am found, where I live, where I am.
7. Complain less... and be positive more.
8. Love the unlovable and the unwanted and the hurt.
9. Travel somewhere else, somewhere uncomfortable, but somewhere that God wants me.
10. Be the change I wish to see in the world. I'm not giving up on this one and I thought that Gandhi had no idea what he was saying when he said this but maybe he did.

Happy 2010 to you and may you work hard to make a difference in the coming year!
-Melis