"Nobody puts Baby in the Corner"

Oh how I love this movie!!! Dirty Dancing is a classic, awkward, romantic movie that I absolutely     L O V E. While sitting here, I decide I should blog since it has been awhile since I have.

Student teaching was the most amazing experience I could have asked for. I loved being with the students I had. They came to me with so many crazy problems, I felt like I was female Will Schuester from Glee. Seriously. I had a boy come to my classroom one morning and tell me he was gay. Out of the clear blue, I didn't even know if he was paying attention in class and then he comes and tells me that I am the first person he has told. . . .After lunch fellow classmate comes in to tell me her and her boyfriend broke up. He came out. UH! I didn't even know they were dating, when I asked her, through her tear filled eyes how long they had been dating she tells me "A whole week". Apparently that is a very long time in high school. After counseling these two on different levels I told them that they both needed to be there for one another (can you hear the Full House music being cued for the tender moment) and to not let this get in the way of their friendship. They took the weekend to calm their emotions and the next time I saw them in class they were skipping and painting each others nails again. Precious, I know.

Another students story is not as lively, but still very much like something on Glee. (I use to think they had to have made up all the crazy stroylines, and yes, some of them are still far fetch, but not as far as I use to think). This student was gone for two weeks and upon returning told me about her attempt to take her life and that she was in a treatment clinic getting help. Yeah--thanks for the heads up counselors. As she began to tell me THE WHOLE STORY, I was stunned that this beautiful, talented, "happy" girl would think that she had no reason to live. Once she finished she tells me how she only told the rest of her teachers that she had been in the hospital, and to me, she tells me why she wanted to take her life, what was going on, etc.  After we get her caught up in class, the day before I am finished student teaching, she comes in and tells me that the night before her mother kicked her out. SERIOUSLY!! After everything she has just been through, she spent 3/4 periods that day with me and a counselor trying to figure it all out and where she could stay. I don't know the end to this story, but I hope that it all works out for her.

I loved these kids and how wonderful they were for me, I learned that my teaching style is very laissez-faire and did not let the small things bother me. I thought going in that I would be very structured and rigid, that didn't last a day. 

I wanted them to enjoy learning more than fear me from demanding their respect. And for the most part they began to understand why some nerdy people like me enjoy history and politics. They got to see me get all giddy about a presidential nominee scandal and get angry about Native American assimilation process/treatment. I wanted them to understand it is not the facts that make things matter, to me it is the why things happened and who/how it affected people then, and how it affects me today.

Nice Cardie!

Back to my movie and why I feel like blogging.
I feel so much like Frances, "Baby". I feel so out of place. Really I do, I have stopped taking thousands of pictures.

I have been gone from Ogden for 4 1/2 years and I can definitely see and feel it. All of my friends from high school are either married with kids, on missions, or moved away. My siblings are busy with their lives and friends. And I "carried a watermelon" in my nice cardigan to a p;ace that is filled with people already established and acquainted with one another. 

I'm not getting caught in the middle of crazy situations, I am just stagnant here, while everyone around me knows how to dance, I stand awkwardly trying to find my balance on a tipped over tree.

[Granted, I know how to dance quite well, for the intent for this to run parallel to the movie, I must say that I cannot]

But as the best of the movie, Johnny (Swayze) says "Nobody puts Baby in the Corner". I cannot push myself into seclusion, so I will continue to put myself onto center stage with my quote-unquote "two left feet" until I feel like I belong here. I need to get my camera back out and snap photos of my life.
Maybe I never will in every aspect of my life, but I will never put myself into a spot where I will be unhappy and alone. I love people too much. There is too much to be enjoyed to be in that corner.

Enjoy the clip!! The whole movie is amazing, but this dance is beautiful!!