Having a strong support system makes all the difference in accomplishing daily tasks. Support can come from everywhere throughout your day. Between family,friends, coworkers, and even the children in my care, I am constantly surrounded by various support systems. My biggest support comes from my mother, who without fail sends me everything from good morning texts with everything from prayers (reminding me to put faith in God in regards to all I do), youtube videos, and jokes at 630am makes sure to check on me throughout the day as well. She even talks to me when I leave my second job at midnight to make sure that I have someone to discuss my day with and to make sure that I make it to my house safely. I don't remember us being this close before I began living alone, but she's always been extremely supportive. In fact the other day, I had a dream about becoming an astronaut and called her to tell her about it, to which she responded "well you said that a lot when you were younger, i don't see why you can't still make it to space". I don't know anyone else on the planet that would have responded with support to my wanting to visit the moon. I can picture my dad and brother laughing in my face or waving me off if I even brought that up. Another huge pillar of support in my life is my mom's youngest sister (she's one of 22 kids, I call them the original Brady Bunch), my aunt Jennifer. My aunt is just as supportive as my mother, they both encourage me to succeed and celebrate my accomplishments daily. I'd rather not discuss how difficult it would be to exist without their support, because currently I cannot imagine that and the thought itself is overwhelmingly scary. Support also comes from my coworkers, I can't count the number of notebooks I have filled with information learned from other teachers. I can't imagine being a successful teacher without support from coworkers. Sometimes I might not understand or agree with what I'm being told, but I always feel comfortable enough to express my feelings. Sometimes, coworkers and above do not like being told that their way is not the correct way, but one thing that I've learned after taking three classes at Walden and not getting to physically see any of my colleagues was that keeping quiet doesn't help anybody. I've had extremely informative conversations, debates if you will, in regards to topics and how I've responded and how others responded, all while remaining respectful and open minded. I didn't even realize until now that I can officially add Walden to my support system list. Being a teacher without a support system would be extremely hard. There have been times where I was not prepared to deal with certain behaviors or not able to reach a child academically and felt frustrated because in a sense I was failing the child. The only way to help, was to seek help from people who had gone through similar situations in classrooms for years before me.
A challenge I came up with would be aving any terminal illness. I know my family would be my support system through that, I got a tooth pulled a few years ago and my parents got me a bell. Even if I'm sick now, my mom urges me to come over and stay with them. Which is comforting, even though my mom thinks the solution to every ailment is tea haha. Constant support and encouragement from my family would be enough to help me continue. Becoming seriously ill is out of your control and that's why I would need the support, I wouldn't survive without that lifeline. Without it, knowing I wasn't well enough to make a difference in my classroom or that I didn't have anyone rooting for me would kill me. I can't even imagine, I tried, I really did, the mere thought of losing my support system and not being able to contribute to the one thing I am extremely passionate about is depressing
