A Brief History of Me

My name is Nicole and I'm in my mid-twenties. I teach 8th grade English in a school with a very odd population. I've been married less than a year to my dear Hubby (DH) who I dated for four years before finally consenting to wed him. He's a ridiculously logical and practical engineer with a side of absent minded professor. I, on the other hand, am impractical and imaginative which as you can imagine leads to some tension at times. We live in a tiny rural town in the heartland of the country with our crazy two year old rescue dog (the love of my life-I promised my husband in our wedding vows that I would love him more than the dog-it's the one vow I've been unable to keep). For all her cuteness she is truly nuts and requires anti-anxiety medicine and heavily stuffed Kongs to enable us to leave the house without her eating holes in the drywall. 

I'm an only child which means I'm extraordinarily close to my parents, but I'm also self-centered and occasionally selfish. Until I moved in with my husband I never had to share a bathroom, my food, the tv remote or a bedroom with anyone. Now, almost five years later I'm still trying to adjust to some other human in my space all the time, even a human being who I love dearly. Things are made a little more complicated by the fact that DH travels 6 months out of the year for work which means half the year I get to be a single gal with all the responsibilities of a married woman and half the year I'm a married woman having to adjust to having a spouse. It certainly makes for an interesting life.

I recently was rewarded for two years of paper writing and reading boring books by being granted a Masters in Education. Supposedly this will make me a better teacher (at least I get a higher salary for it), but I'm still unsure as to how two years of writing papers on my teaching philosophy and my hypothetical students will make me a better teacher to the 120 students who grace my classroom every day. However, I'm intending to start my doctorate in the fall which will probably turn me into SUPERTEACHER!!!!! At least it will earn me a nice chunk of change and the right to make people call me doctor (of course I will be as obnoxious as possible about it).

I wanted to be a teacher, but it always was a fall back plan to becoming a writer. I expected to write my first novel, send it off to a few literary agents and instantly score a book and movie deal. I spent my morning showers planning what I would say on the Today show and Good Morning America (despite having never seen an episode of either of the shows). I figured I would teach for a year and then I would be the next J.K. Rowling. I happily finished my first manuscript and began the fun process of querying every agent in Writer's Digest. The wonders of modern technology allowed me to receive my rejection letters in a matter of minutes rather than weeks and they kept rolling in. After four months and 62 rejections I pulled out the manuscript to look at it for the first time since the whole querying process began and I was HORRIFIED by what I saw. The writing was juvenile and the plot was tough to follow. The whole manuscript stank of desperation and amateur writing and I was embarrassed to have ever sent it to anyone. 

That fun experience killed my writing dreams for awhile (about 3 years) and real life got in the way of having time to write. I still kept a list of ideas for books and stories that popped into my head at the most inopportune times (such as when I was wrestling with insomnia or trying to merge onto a crowded highway). I read tons of books about the craft of writing and books by authors I admire. I wrote a few stories and started on a few novels, but the passion just wasn't there. I have finally found a story I'm passionate about (and my view on the publishing industry is much more realistic and rooted in reality than it was) so I'm ready to start writing again. As a part of my process I decided that blogging would be a good way for me to keep my writing muscles active and overcome my crippling fear of people reading my writing (I can't even let the DH or my best friend-aka my mom-read my writing). Letting strangers on the Internet read my innermost thoughts and allowing them into my life is something that terrifies me so I figure it will be good preparation for my eventual Today show interview. 

I've tried blogging three or four times before and I've never had good results. I usually give up after post three or four because I run out of interesting things to say. It's hard to share about the hot party or cool club when I wasn't invited (and even if I was I wouldn't have gone anyways). Somehow a years worth of blog posts about the most sanitized portions of my job (since I can't share the most fun parts publicly in the interest of student privacy) and nights spent on the couch with my dog and a good book don't make for the most exciting reading. In preparation for my own blog attempt I've read up on blogs from a wide range of authors (including a friend of mine who now makes a living blogging). I've promised to give it a true and faithful shot for 2015. 

Thanks for reading!