Halftime.

Hello ladies and gents.
   As you may recall today is the beginning of my week long hiatus from school. And yes, I am spending my first night of spring break at home writing this blog. And yes, I am keeping a glass of wine company. And yes, Im completely and totally content. I am first class, grade A exhausted... too tired to go out regardless of my "spring breaker" status. It was a long week... short notice test on Thursday made what I though would be an easy week not so easy. I told that short notice test to shove it though..93% on minimal studying (yeah!) Today was pretty awesome. We went to a salvage yard and spent the day cutting up cars. I got to use the jaws of life and the hydraulic cutters... we had a durango disassembled and in half in like 15 minutes. It was a gorgeous day...65 and sunny. Although we were in full gear so it was pretty freakin hot and those tools are seriously heavy. So needless to say a chill Friday at home is in order for real. Besides, I have a full week to let loose :) :) :) :) 
   Moving on....to continue my football analogy we've made it to halftime. First and second quarters are in the books. And right in time might I add, I desperately needed a break. So as your halftime commentator I will run through the highlights from the first half...
   The first quarter started out with yours truly being scared out of my mind. Unsure of myself, unsure of what to expect, unsure what I had gotten myself into. But me being the usual bull by the horns bitch I am, I offered myself up to be the class president and was chosen as such over the class douche. After a few weeks we all settled into our roles and got the hang of things. I've already gotten to do so much cool shit.... carry grown men down ladders, use thermal imaging cameras, go into actual burning buildings, cut cars in half, etc. It has been so much hard work but a ton of fun at the same time. The second quarter was more of the same. Aside from our daily quizzes we have taken 4 large exams and I am pleased to announce that I am the only person in the class to have scored A's on every test. Im certainly not well known for my academic ambitions but I made a promise to myself before I began this program to really push myself in the classroom. And I must admit it feels pretty good.  I am a bit more well known for my physical abilities I suppose... not to say that I wasn't nervous about that aspect of this program. I honestly just expected to really struggle to keep up with my male counterparts. Lucky for me they didn't take showing up in shape very seriously and have made me look like a beast...although in my defense I worked my ass off before I started and have continued to do so throughout. That hard work paid off with my passing of the CPAT on the first try which was a huge relief. Of all the things that I have accomplished during this first half of school I think the thing I am most proud of is that I have been able to gain the trust and respect of my classmates as their leader. This was quite a daunting task to undertake seeings that our class is 24 men and 4 women, with an age range of 45 to 19, and guys who did serious time in the military, and so on and so forth. Im sure not everyone likes me, and I'm sure some of my classmates think I'm just a power hungry bitch. But the fact of the matter is that as a whole the class is behind me, they trust me, and they listen which is unbelievably humbling and gratifying. 
   Just as I figured I would I have learned so much about myself over the last two months. Or perhaps learned isn't the right word. Perhaps confirmation is a better way to look at it. I always thought I was capable... those thoughts were just seeping with doubt. Over the last couple months I have begun to wipe that doubt away and I am beginning to find my stride as self assured individual. Probably the hardest and longest two months of my life... Been a pretty brutal 5 months dating back to the end of 2010 actually. But a rolling stone gathers no moss... I just keep fighting the good fight ...and taking the path less traveled... (insert any other over used figure of speech about life here)
   To round out this highlight reel I will leave you with some memorable moments....

~ to set the scene, we were all standing around before PT and I was saying how my shoulder was hurting lately and a classmate says "well cant you just go to the shop and get that fixed?" to which I reply "huh?" and he said "well you are the terminator, cant you just go get your parts replaced" we all had a nice laugh about that one and now half the class calls me the terminator.
~ I made the mistake of telling everyone how I am to be a bridesmaid in June for Erica's wedding and how I'm going to look silly in a dress with these shoulders. My Chief caught wind of this also and one day when we were being punished with push ups he yells at all of us to drop... and then says "time for us to do some "bridesman" push ups. Nice. That's the running joke as of late.
~ Another time during PT we were getting punishedfor sucking and I was getting pretty irritated...So I start yelling at the class and my chief while laughing at us states..."uh oh, Mamma's getting upset"...I about died lol. 

I would just like to say thank you again to everyone for all the love and support. As hard as I've been working and pushing myself  I would still be no where without my amazing friends and family. Your motivation and encouragement mean more to me than I could ever truly express.
~Love

oh, p.s. I can't wait to relax and see everyone over spring break!!