>this weekend, i attended the 12th birthday party of my first niece. we spent the day at a water park in western louisiana. i, thankfully, got one of the not-so-coveted non-swimmer’s tickets, which was a good thing because i deliberately did not wear or even pack a swimsuit. did not sound fun to me. i was there for the fellowship. i renewed my wonder and awe about how women perform their duties as mothers whilst having to attend to 8,000,000 other people and other demands of life. at one point, i was feeding my newborn niece a bottle with my left hand, contorting my body to rock her carrier with the elbow of the same hemisphere of my body and somehow managing to drink water and wedge my novel under the carrier to hold down the pages so that i could read simultaneously. it’s a marvel. mothers of the world, i salute you! anyway, after the party was over, my mom and i went to a local mall to see if there were any new-job-appropriate clothes on super-end-of-season sale yet. the answer is ‘no’. or perhaps ‘yes’ but not my style. i’d rather wear overalls and a t-shirt to wallow around on the floor with three- and four-year-olds. since beginning work in my new job, i’ve been wondering if it would be socially and professionally acceptable for me to write a personal statement/bio to introduce myself to all the people i will be working with in my new position. and if it would be so, what would i like to tell them? hello, i am coming to you after two years of doing this same type of job in another city. before that, i spent 8.5 years in the music business where i was exposed to every kind of pressure, social and professional, that you can imagine, and i was lucky enough to have the opportunity to encounter many different kinds of people. the experience as a whole was a fruitful and enjoyable one, and it gave me the opportunity to observe and understand human beings and our patterns of behavior in ways that i would never have been able to if it were not for the experience. from a very young age, i have been very interested in distinct cultures — inside my own family, country and the world. i have been gripped by fear and completely fearless at various stages of my life. i have been victimized by gossip and therefore do not understand the need to take other people’s trial and tragedy and trivialize and editorialize it. i believe that every one of us is on this earth, created by God, with a specific purpose to fulfill. i believe that when we work toward fulfilling that purpose, there is no greater sense of happiness and fulfillment. i believe that the reason that i took my first spanish class was to be able to take this job with gusto and serve what is rapidly becoming the majority population of our country and continent. i believe that none of us is born knowing how to be a parent, a husband or a wife, yet these are the absolute most important roles than any of us may ever fulfill in our time on earth. in my work, i believe that it is my job not only to teach the children but also to teach their parents — to convince them that they are, in fact, their childrens’ first teacher and that they have to make whatever personal effort and sacrifice to give that child the best social, emotional and academic base that they are able. my sense of humor is equally funny to some and completely lost on others. i love to read, and i love to encourage others to read. i believe that any and all efforts that we make to do a great job are fruitless if we are not exposing ourselves to some form of art continually and habitually. the same goes for our intellectual self as for our spiritual self — if we are not feeding our spirit and our brain, we will have nothing to give to those with whom we want to share. i am so looking forward to the coming school year — as daunting a challenge as it may be — and i am looking forward to surrounding myself with a great team that wants to make great things happen with these children and their families.