Got the strangest thing in our mailbox today!

Dad went out to collect the mail, and came back in holding this shell. He looked at it and asked mum if she knew who might have put a shell with our mail that said “Susan” on it. He then put it down on the table and went away.

Mum came and picked it up and immediately said ‘What? It doesn’t say “Susan”! It says “Jesus”!”

So it does! If you look at it one way up, it says “Susan” – the other way? “Jesus”!?

How utterly bizarre is THAT!?

Btw, we still have no clue who left it! We did have a visit from some Jehovah’s Witnesses a few days ago, and they left us a magazine, so I guess it might have been them, but still, it’s very strange. Surely they wouldn’t just leave it there by itself without identifying themselves in any way…?

Mysterious.

I wouldn’t say no to one of these!

Met my friend’s Cockapoo yesterday! Seriously, could not be any cuter if she tried! I don’t think my cat would be too thrilled though, and nor would I after the novelty wore off.

Nope. The puppy is cute…but I think I’m still a cat person.

Dogs? Cats? Horses? Birds? Any preferences?

When I did not make friends during my undergrad degree, I thought there was something wrong with me. I would go to lectures and tutorials and talk to the people around me, but since there were a couple of hundred of us in every lecture, and 20 or so of us in each tutorial, it wasn’t as if I was sitting near the same people each time. It was just too big.

This situation was not helped by the fact that I wasn’t living in a hall of residence (a dorm), and that going to parties or joining social clubs has never really been my thing.

Just before starting my third year of uni, I joined the student mentoring program, helping incoming first-years find their way around the campus, and also hoping that this might help connect me to some like-minded individuals. In some ways it did, I worked with a couple of girls there who I liked, but we never became close enough to socialise outside of work.

By the time I graduated, I realised that I’d managed to get through 3.5 years of university without making ANY new friends. Seriously.¹

When I considered applying for TColl, I wondered whether things would be any different, since I’d be surrounded by people who all had a similar goal in mind. When I had my interview, I was in a group of three with another woman also applying for the graduate course. I made a deliberate point of remembering her name and face, since I figured that if we were both accepted, I’d at least have ONE familiar person around!

After I found out I had gotten in, I posted on Facebook and got a comment from a girl I went to primary school with! I hadn’t seen her since I was eleven, but she responded that she was enrolling in this course too! Small world! Sweet – somebody else I knew!

On the first day, I was pleased to find that the 60ish of us in the course were divided into two groups. These groups would have all their classes together, as well as some combined classes with ALL the grads at once. I also found out that the woman I was in the interview with had also been accepted, and was just as pleased to see me as I was to see her! My friend from primary school ended up being assigned to the other group, so I didn’t see as much of her as I thought I would.

In our first week, we did a Q and A session with a group of grads a year ahead of us, who will now just about be finished with their course and starting work as Real Teachers. I don’t remember all the advice they gave us, but I do remember one of them telling us that it might not seem like it yet, but that by this time next year, our whole class would be like a family, and we WOULD make friends. I thought “Yeah, well that’s all very well for you! You’re probably all partying, club-joining types!” *eyeroll*

The first week and a bit were totally overwhelming. I remember coming home one evening and thinking “What on EARTH have I just signed myself up for?! Do I even WANT to be a teacher!? There are SO many people here! AHHHHHHHH!”

Luckily that panic was relatively short-lived, however it wasn’t until a week or so before I was due to go on placement that I suddenly thought “But what about all the people I see every day!? The people I always find myself sitting with in class and chatting to in breaks! I’m not going to see them for SIX WEEKS!” I suddenly realised that without really even trying to, I had made friends.

I had that realisation again on Saturday. Sitting in one woman’s living room, looking at all these people I didn’t even know existed six months ago, but who I now see, and look forward to seeing, five days a week.

The main thing I like about our little group (aside from us being awesome) is how different we all are. We’re all women (which, in a primary education course, isn’t terribly surprising!²), but we range in age from 21 to early 50s. Some of us are New Zealanders, some aren’t; some are married and have families, and some don’t; Some are Christians, some aren’t. We all get along really well, and I think us being different (but also similar) is probably what attracts us to each other.

Dear TColl Friends,
You are awesome. I’m so glad I met you – even if I did have to wait for four years!
You were worth it.
Love, Me.

1. Of course I did have other friends, I wasn’t a total hermit, they just weren’t people I’d met through classes! [↩]
2. There ARE men in this course, perfectly nice men too, but just not in the particular group I’m thinking about here! [↩]