The Strachan Chronicles : Not offically graduated, but walked before student teaching

This past weekend, (Dec.18-19th) I walked in graduation at BYU-Idaho. I won't be offically done until April after student teaching, but it was more convenient to walk beforehand. Once I'm finished I will be a graduate from BYU-Idaho in elementary education. I have attended BYU-Idaho for the past three years, where I have had many experiences that I have been able to learn, grow and mature from. It was here that I grew intellectually as well as spiritually. It is here that I met some of my life long friends. It is here that I learned to have a social life, throwing parties of every kind, learning to Latin and Country dance. It is here where I have many cherish memories with friends like finger painting, going to Yellowstone, pudding painting, dance parties, hula hooping, falling asleep in awkward positions/places, staying up late talking and laughing, and watching old movies. It is here where I learned my love of poetry and writing poems about every day event(s). It is here where I learned that I have a talent of cooking and learned to perfect it by making cinnamon rolls, pizza rolls, fajitas, enchiladas, egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken, heath candy, scotcharoos, and hot fudge sauce. It is here where I learned to love the cold...weather it there is snow in January, April or June...just be happy! It is here that I learned I love to snowshoe and backpack. It is here I learned a greater love of family history. It is here where I learned that dishes in the sink are okay and not to stress out about having a clean apartment 24/7. It is here that I learned I can run up steep hills...like the temple hill. It is here that I learned to serve everyone and be a friend to all. It is here where I learned to be a leader by serving in the Heber J. Grant program-writing the manual for the class, being a mentor as well as teacher for the class. It is here I learned to be a teacher and a master teacher is what I hope to be someday. It is here where I learned to enjoy the beauty of the temple-being able to see it on a day to day basis. It is here where I learned my love of going to the temple, the importance of eternal families, and my greater desire to be married in the temple someday. It is here where I learned that I love my family more than I ever knew before, because I was far away from them. I'm thankful to have attended such a wonderful university and be taught by many wonderful professors. I'm thankful to them for all they have taught me. Thank you to my family and all my friends who have supported me the last 3 years of college. It is because of your love and support that I have been able to make it through. Although it is time to move on to the next stage of my life, BYU-Idaho will always be apart of me. It is because of this institution that I'm a better person. There are many things I'll miss, but "Don't cry because it's over" Smile, because it happened" that is just what I'll do. I have learned that it's okay to miss things, but just don't dwell upon it. I walked this past weekend and participated in graduation ceremony, listened to an apostle of the Lord: Elder Richard G. Scott and now it's time to move on to greater endeavors. I'm off to student teach in Midvale, Utah (suburb of Salt Lake City) in the 6th grade with Mr. Mellor at East Midvale Elementary. It is here that I will learn to become a better teacher and prepare to get a teaching job, where I will have my own class someday. I will student teach from Jan 4th- April 2nd (so, I will be officially graduated in April and then receive my diploma. I'm done with all my course work and was allowed to walk before student teaching) and after that...who knows what life has in store? I hope to get a job...where...who knows? At least I will have 3 months to think about it and figure that all out. :) I'll I know is that I'm young, I have a lot of life ahead of me...so I'm going to go ahead and live life to the fullest and have many great adventures along the way and hope to fulfill some of my dreams and goals as well.

Here are some pictures from my graduation. My parents were able to come up and see me graduate and I'm thankful to them for traveling all the way from California.