21 Lessons Learned in 2012

Yes, there is life in the Retirement Community again. I've missed you too. I have had to take a brief hiatus from blogging due to the gruesome demands of subbing, but rest assured I'm back ... until sub-teach calls to wake me up at an outrageously early hour. Despite the dread, I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be a substitute teacher. I have been able to provide a little income for the family, and I have embraced the humility with arms wide ... maybe not-so-wide open.  I have gone from the status of an award-winning experienced teacher to the bottom of the totem pole. Oddly, through my humility I have gained freedom. With clarity, I have realized that I really don't want to be a teacher anymore. Luckily I have a whole other degree to fall back on! I highly recommend getting two degrees in case you really don't know what you want to be when you grow up! My early retirement from teaching is not due to the fact that I didn't like the profession. I just have not missed teaching one bit ... well that could be a lie. (It probably is.) I will miss my comical students, but I am fairly certain that my own children will fill that void, and if they aren't funny I'll just have to rent some funny ones. Don't worry I am also 99% certain that if someone offered me a teaching job, I would snatch that up without any hesitation.

Through this whole process I have had to learn one serious lesson, I can't put my self-worth in the success of my career. My self-worth comes from above, not my pay check.

Over the course of my roller coaster year I have learned plenty of other valuable lessons.

1. Sometimes you just have to move back in with your parents.
2. Life isn't over just because you live in a Retirement Community and all the restaurants close at 9 pm.
3. Even though you just want to make friends, you are a creeper when you show up at the play group without being a mom. 
4. Depression can hit you like a train and last as long as a monopoly game.
5. You aren't a loser just because it's three in the afternoon and you haven't brushed your teeth yet.
6. When you are poor and you break your kindle, you do have to wait until Christmas to get a new one. 
7. Your husband will still love you when you have a psychotic meltdown in the kitchen because all the noodles spilled on the floor. 
8. He will continue to love when you explain that the dirty pasta has absolutely nothing to do with your current meltdown.
9. It's ok to start a business selling jewelry because that will give you the perfect excuse to buy the jewelry you have been lusting over for the past few months. www.stelladot.com/laurenwarren (Shout out)
10. You can still consider yourself a fashion icon even though you can't afford to go shopping every Saturday or any Saturday.
11. Your true friends still call when you are poor and unemployed. They let you fill them in on daytime television because that is all you have to talk about. AND they definitely don't tell you that they thought you would have a more toned body since you have a ton of free time to work out. 
12. It's ok to consider the blogger at www.skinnytaste.com as your personal meal planner.
13. It's ok to consider yourself the sous chef of the blogger at www.skinnytaste.com. 
14. Library cards really aren't that crucial.
15. I am taking time off to write a book is a legit fib to tell strangers and not strangers when you are unemployed.
16. The Walking Dead board game is right. There really won't be a winner during a zombie apocalypse. 
17. Turning on the roomba counts as a productive day.
18. It's ok to use the excuse we like to travel as a reason not to have kids even though you can't afford to travel.
19. NEVER take a trip with strangers from your spouse's class because they will charge you an arm and a leg to sleep on the floor and they will ruin your Napa trip.
20. Being from Arkansas doesn't guarantee a free pass to look homely. It's OK to be scared of the homely looking people. 
21. My life really isn't that bad. I have a happy, healthy, loving family and that is really all that matters. They love me even when I can't afford to buy them a real Christmas card and will cry when I try to pay them the full amount of my haircut because they know I am really just paying them with school loans.