My teaching career started in 1982 in a first grade classroom in Grand Island, Nebraska. I then moved to a third grade classroom in Milford, Nebraska, where I stayed for the next nine years. After nearing the end of my masters work in counseling psychology at the University of Nebraska, I was hired by Lincoln Public Schools in 1992 as a school counselor. I worked at Ruth Hill Ele. for four years, then divided my time between Ruth Hill and Zeman Elementaries for four years. In 2000, due to the lure of the diverse population of the school's English Language Learner program, I began working full-time at Zeman.
My husband and I have two children, a son who is twenty-one and a daughter, fifteen. Over the years my kids have helped me to hone the art of being a teacher and counselor, whether by offering opportunity to implement the skills and strategies of the parenting classes I've taught, contributing good story material to use in these classes (if they knew just how many and the content, they'd probably never forgive me) or being an audience for yet another children's piece of bibliotherapy brought home to review. Many evenings at the table my husband and children heard the joy, and yes, sometimes the heartache, involved in being a counselor.
Whether a wife, mother, classroom teacher or school counselor, I've approached living as an opportunity to fulfill a personal mission in making a positive difference in the lives of others, and living a life that matters.
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built. Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom, and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
-Michael Josephson