hillarygayle | The end of clinicals, Wakarusa excitement, & prom!

I am much more excited than I thought I would be about the end of ASU clinical teaching. I loved teaching the students, but I've been a bit overwhelmed with working. I think the fact that I taught clinicals on my own floor was a blessing & a curse: I knew exactly where everything was, how to do all of it, what we specialized in. I was the perfect teacher for that environment: someone who knows it inside & out, someone who loves it, & someone who loves teaching it to other people who want to learn it. On the other hand, it meant that I was working on the progressive care unit 3 days a week for 12 hours, then 1 day a week for 8 hours. THAT'S TOO MANY HOURS in such a stressful, high pressure environment.

I can't teach next year anyway. As of this coming fall, every teacher who does anything for the ASU BSN program has to have a master's degree already. It used to count if you were enrolled in grad school, but not now, so I am going to simply drop to part-time at my current job & call it a day. (The grad program is mandatory full time, so something had to give anyway.)

I am SO STOKED about Wakarusa this year! Bryan isn't as excited as I am, but he humors me so it's good. I can't wait to get back to all the craziness & all the music & all the fun stuff to do & things to eat & people to meet.

They released the stage schedule this week, and I found even more to be excited about. In the Revival Tent on Friday, only like 2 or 3 bands aren't on my "must see" list. I can sit in that tent all of Friday: from mid-afternoon to 3am, and I will ALWAYS be listening to a band I want to see! Of Monsters & Men, Ozomatli, STS9, Galactic! *dance* I am already making plans to stake out a spot on the left hand side, by the woods, with our backpack chairs, and soak up the music. I CAN'T WAIT.

SOOOOOOOOOO, prom! I did not do Nerd Prom (i.e. the White House Correspondents' Dinner) last night; I did Real Prom instead! Last night was Weiner High School's very last prom. Next year they will be consolidated with Harrisburg High School. A damn shame, too, because the junior class at WHS this year is silly, funny, smart, & very close-knit. Everyone was hoping they could graduate together from WHS as they started together in kindergarten. :(

So the prom could easily have been a depressing sort of event, but it wasn't. It was upbeat & fun, & they had tons of fun. Bryan wore a bow tie & suspenders, and he actually looks a heck of a lot better in that type of formal menswear than he does a regular tie & belt. He's decided it's his new dress up look, & I could not be happier about it. It looks super dapper while retaining a slight nerd vibe. I fangirled my husband. :)

Bryan & one of his students. Prom is srs bsns.

The requisite Gangnam Style. :) Witness the power of the internet. In 1997, I graduated from this same school, attending a prom in this same cafeteria. If you had told me then that in 2013, students would be flailing around in a stylized horse-riding dance made popular by a South Korean rapper...I might have believed you. But ONLY because I was a true believer in the internet by then, and I just KNEW my love of all things Asian pop culture were gonna hit it big someday. ;D But seriously, these are high schoolers in Weiner, Arkansas, dancing to a South Korean rap song. The world is smaller.

Everyone rocked the glowsticks.

I don't know what is happening here. All I know is that these boys dragged Bryan onto the stage to help them do it.

There was a photo booth! It was super cool. They had all kinds of props & you clicked a button when you were ready, then it took a pic every 5 seconds for a total of 4 photos. Then it printed this & you could have it for free! It was definitely one of the most fun things I have ever seen at a prom. SUPER popular.

The faculty/staff photo. I told Bryan he should be super grateful that Ben (the other guy; English teacher) showed up. Otherwise there's no telling how that picture would've ended up.

There's a country song called "Wagon Wheel", which has become some sort of anthem for the boys of the junior & senior classes. When they played it, they all rushed up to the stage to sing it like this while the girls pretended to fangirl them, like it was a concert. It was dark until Bryan & Ben figured out the stage lights & turned them on. It was spontaneous & hilarious & they all seemed thrilled to be doing it. :)