I Heart My Old Teachers

So apparently this week is Teacher Appreciation Week and in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I just wanted to give a shout out to some of the most awesome teachers I've had (I know I've already done a post like this but let's just have another run through of the list seeing as it fits the week).

Skye (Miss Hegarty) - Oh Skye, what would I have done without Skye? She was one of the best teachers I have ever had. Inspiring, encouraging, understanding and more like a big sister than a teacher. She brought a group of girls who had hardly talked to each other (some of us barely liked each other) before year 12 together and now we're this little dance family unit. Granted, I haven't seen a lot of the girls in a long time but without her, we would not even have talked. Now I love my dance family and I miss dancing with them so much. I could go on and on about Skye but it would take forever. She is amazing.

Mr Altraide - My school dad! He always managed to make me smile and laugh every day and he was so committed to helping his students do their best, even if that included sacrificing his free time to tutor us, spending money on providing food and drink for us during tutoring sessions, getting maccas for his mentorees and just always supporting us. I remember once when I was so stressed about WAAPA and I went to talk to him (because he was my mentor) and he was so cute about it. He was so awkward because I'd started crying and he was trying to calm me down with tissues, food and advice. And he was all, "can I pray for you? Trust God. It's okay". So sweet. Not to mention the NUMEROUS times I bitched to him about how much I hated physics and was so bad at it. He was my physics teacher. Now I kind of miss doing physics. Haha.

Mrs Gostelow - Brilliance. I probably would not be doing half of what I'm doing at uni or doing it as well as I am (I got a HD+ for an essay in a unit that I hate and hardly put any work in). I loved my lit classes with her and my lit family. Eating cake and biscuits and drinking tea while talking about poetry and plays and novels was pretty much the best. Studying lit at uni just isn't the same when I don't have my lit family with me. Probably one of the best things happened after I'd graduated. I took an Intro to Lit unit last year and when our first essay came around, my tutor told us to forget about everything we learned in high school because it wasn't right for uni or something (I don't quite remember right now). Anyway, for our second essay I decided to do the question on poetry (TS Eliot's 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock'). Pretty much all of the notes I had was from when I'd studied 'Prufrock' in year 12. So basically everything for that essay was stuff from year 12 (I didn't really change the style in which I wrote my essays and my notes were as I mentioned earlier) and what did I get for that essay? A HD :). Thank you, Gosty, for equipping me with such skills. I miss our ponies!

Madam Henri - Ma mere de francais! Tiny and adorable! She was the one teacher who taught me all through my high school years and we spent so many awesome times together with our French family. She was so supportive and I miss French so much. She's one of the teachers I go to see first whenever I visit my old high school.

[Dr] Crombie - Where do I even start with Crombie? I've done a post on him too but he was such a story and testimony, such an inspiration. He was taken too early but I know he's in a better place and that I'll see him in good time. Rest in Paradise, Crombie. I miss him. We miss him. You can read the post about Crombie here.

Of course there are many other teachers that have made me smile, laugh, cheered me up and encouraged me. Too many to list but I hope they know who and how great they are. Take a moment this week to appreciate your teachers. Be nice to them, be thankful and grateful for them. They just want you learn, grow and for you to do your best, even if sometimes they seem like the worst teachers. And sometimes they are (trust me - I've had my fair share of horrid teachers, some of which I haven't been the nicest too either) but they're people too and everyone has feelings. Just smile at them this week, maybe.

On a side note - Happy International Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you :P.

List 2: Things I'm Grateful For This Week

1. Yellowcard's new album When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes was released this week. YELLOWCARD IS BACK! Anyone who knows me well will know that Yellowcard is my favourite band of all time. They have gotten me through so much in the last eight years and I all but cried when they announced their indefinite hiatus. But now they're back and are as strong as ever!
2. My uni study break (please don't end!)
3. My family and friends who are alive
4. My mum's Thermomix cookbook coming out
5. Getting Epic Espresso coffee

It's the little things in life that count :).

Home is where the heart is and my heart is not here.

I love and miss my family but Singapore is most definitely not my home anymore. I don't think it ever was. I've only been here for a couple of days but I already miss Perth and my friends and my Perth family and my bed and my church and my car and my ballet class (even though it's over for the year).

I can't wait to get home; my friend needs me and I want to be able to help her and calm her down but for now, Facebook messaging will have to suffice.

I missed my church's Christmas carol service. That made me really sad; I really enjoy them and I actually hate Christmas carols (barring maybe one or two). I think it's the people I spend it with and the whole atmosphere and vibe of the event.

My cousin's wedding was on last Sunday and it was really great. It was really relaxed and it was just so great to be able to spend time with my family, especially my cousins. I get on along with all of them A LOT more than I used to; I think it's because I'm older now and I've started spending more time with them whenever I come back (we have gatherings all the time). I was the youngest of the whole group for the longest time (there's another younger one now but she's like, 5, then there's me who's 18 and the rest are above 20) so there was a rather large age gap but now I'm older so it's not as bad or awkward. My cousin's wedding dinner was wild :D. There was dancing, singing, photo-taking, mantou eating, teasing, (a little bit of) drinking, cheering and it was only all from us. As Chris said, ''you know when you go to a wedding and there's that really obnoxious table? I think we're that table tonight." :D But congratulations to Hui Hui and David though!

Expect more of these innane life/day update blog posts now that I'm in Singapore for the next four weeks. I get bored so I blog but I have nothing to blog about so I blog about what I do. Even I get a bit lame about them but I need to have something to do. Sorry in advance.