Something Sweet in the Water

You never forget the places that had the greatest impact on your growth as a person.

There is no other place like Sweet Water.

I am a firm believer that places have personalities. You can't convince me otherwise. They have traits and characteristics that make them memorable and lovable. They say that "home is where the heart is, and I know I left a whole lot of my heart in the walls of SWHS.

I get attached to places like I do people, and when I love someone and something, I all too easily hand over pieces of my heart (and in some cases, very big pieces). I handed a lot of my heart out during my time at SWHS.

There is a reason it's called "Sweet" Water

I grew up in a tiny town called Nicholsville. My boss when I worked at Hardees in Livingston called me once when he was trying to visit someone because he needed directions. I asked him what he saw, and he shouted, "Trees! I see trees! And some powerlines, but mostly trees! Breanna, where am I?!" I got him where he needed to go, and he made it "out of the woods" unscathed but a little freaked out being in the boonies and probably mentally swearing to never go back out there.

I, however, am so thankful that I grew up in the boonies. Sweet Water High School was just a skip and a hop away, so mama was able to work there while I got my education. I attended the Headstart program, and I graduated Salutatorian of my senior class in 2010. In between those 13 years I played my heart out in softball, made my very best friends who I still love and see to this day, learned to play saxophone, volunteered in the library (one of my FAVORITE places), and even fell in love (coming up on 11 years of marriage).

There isn't a more fitting term than "sweet" for this town and this school. I have so many sweet memories during my time spent within those brick walls and out on that softball field. Leaving was bitter sweet, and thanks to new opportunities, being back here just got sweeter!

Home Again

Jonathan has always called me "weird," though I know he means it as a term of endearment, because school was always high up on my priority list. It was also always high up on my enjoyment list. I mean it when I say I could make a career out of going to school. I love learning, and there is just something about taking notes, right? No? Okay, well, anyway...

I have taught at a private school and a city school, and I am going on year six of teaching online classes for UWA and three for Stillman College, but I can't help my excitement at knowing I'll be teaching in purple and gold! Don't get me wrong: I've loved all of my students. I don't think there are many I've had that would disagree that they mattered (and still do) to me--even the ones who I only see on a computer screen, but something has always been missing. I never could put my finger on it.

Well, I got to work in my new classroom today. It is the same room I played "Taboo" in during Mrs. Brenda Atkins's last year as a teacher. It is the same room I read and talked about A Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies--one of which I loved at first, and one I hated, respectively. I have since reread the latter, and I have to say, Piggy and the gang grew on me that second go-round. I am in the same room where Mrs. Lewis had us make scrapbooks and recite Macbeth's "Tomorrow" soliloquy, which I can mostly still recite. I can hear Jonathan whispering "nerd" as I type this. My point is, being back in that classroom brought back so many memories: some good, some bad, some downright ugly--me with hives after mock interviews (yuck!). The smell of those waxed floors, the pull-down drape things that get stuck and make me want to rip them off the windows, the squeak of my shoes on the floor. It all felt like pieces of my heart were floating back to me! It felt like home.

After 13 years, I'm finally home.