TRANSITIONING FROM 2012 TO 2013

So long 2012. What a year this past year was. During the past year, I found myself staring at impending change and taking on new and rewarding challenges. As I look back, I find myself to be happier, stronger, and more in tune with change. The challenges and changes of 2012 have taught me that I am who I am because of where I have been and what I have done in life. I have found love and an amazing partner who supports me daily, I work hard to be involved with my twin sons, I pour my heart into my love for teaching, and I found myself submerged into the life of political activism. I have done more in the past year for myself and the ones I love than I have done in a long while. As 2013 begins, I choose to set my sights on bigger and better things for my future with the ones I love. I will be the best, most supportive partner to the love of my life and live every day to prove how much he means to me. I will strive daily to show my sons how to live life to the fullest without regret, while showing them unconditional love is theirs. I will seek ways to improve education for my children and my students, past and present. I will stretch beyond my comfort zone and take political activism onto new heights as I plan to speak in Washington, DC in April to spread my message nationally. 2012 showed me that I am more than one small voice, but that I am one voice that has the power to move mountains when others share the same vision. As 2012 started, I found myself a bit lost in the world, searching for a purpose. AS 2012 closes out and 2013 makes its grand entrance, I find renewed purpose in my goals and aspirations. I look to this New Year with an optimistic mind and a heart filled with passion for the people I love and the profession I hold dear. 2012 will leave me refreshed and renewed to take on the challenges of my newfound desires and my unending passions. I will take 2013 and love to the fullest as I expand my parameters of comfort and explore new endeavors. I will be all that I can be to show love, compassion, pride, and persistence for my family, friends, and colleagues nationwide. Thank you to everyone who touched me in 2012, to those who have guided me my whole life and those who are new arrivals in my journey. Together we will all accomplish great things personally and professionally as we venture into a new year with renewed strength and conviction. I will miss the loved ones who passed on this year, but I know their love is eternal. My 2013 will be lived in memory of my political heroine, my personal inspiration, my Granny. She taught me politics from an early age, and I am proud to have inherited her desire for political involvement. Granny taught me to know what I want and to go after it, to live with no regrets. I will do that in every way possible this New Year and I hope she looks down with pride as I take on this next challenge and set out to see where a new road may lead.