Kaitlyn's final-fun writing assignment for the school year!

GUEST WRITER-Kaitlyn
This Year
5-25-10
This year has been pretty crazy. At the beginning of the school year we had six people in our family; today we have nine. Each of the three new additions is under the age of eight. We had very little warning both times we added on to the household, but now it seems very natural to look around and see kids everywhere. Of course, this being my first year of high school there has been some school complications too, none of which seem very notable though. Maybe that’s because Mom always taught us that family is most important, but the family changes seem more prominent. Anyway, these are two things I’ve learned this year: Attitude and childcare. I learned other small things too, of course, and I’ve also learned some boring things like Algebra 2 and Biology, which I chose not to bore the readers of this paper about. J
Attitude Counts One school related trait that I learned was simply realizing that your mindset does matter. If you go into a chore, assignment, or life thinking that you won’t like it, or won’t be good at it, you’ll be right. If you tackle it with confidence and diligence though, you will at least learn from it and have fun with it. Mom always told us this when we were too young to think of it ourselves, and I remember not really wanting to listen. I’d have assignments that I never thought I could accomplish, and I’d be ticked off about it. Mom could force us into just about anything, but attitude was always a choice. After awhile I got used to “just doing it,” and I could’ve told you last year that “attitude shows in your work,” but it didn’t click until now.
I suppose that’s because I was doing a lot of my schoolwork on my own this year after the hectic changes when life got more complicated. About then I realized that having an attitude about it wasn’t doing me any good. I just had to get though it. A fact of life is just doing what you need to do, even if it isn’t enjoyable.
Kids Aren’t so Hard A large family is easy to figure out. It can be tiring and disastrous even, but it isn’t mind-boggling. I used to baby-sit, which I never thought I was good at. I couldn’t make decisions on whether to stand them in the corner or leave them alone whenever they got in trouble. I would second-guess myself on whether to let them have a snack or go outside. I never seemed to know exactly how they would react or how to handle them. Mothering seemed like it was way out of my league. I was rather depressed because of this. I always wanted to be more like MacKrea who never lacked confidence or leadership.
But then came Julie, then Billy and Raeanne, then Charlie. I don’t really remember when I realized it wasn’t that necessary to be right all the time. I’m not sure when I discovered how easy it was to judge how they would react or what was safe. All I know is that now, it all seems as easy as pie. Well not all easy perhaps, it is still very tiring to chase them around and there a still catastrophes to be dealt with, but I no longer have the continuous suspicion of doing things wrong. Sure I make mistakes and I know I do, but I’m not completely inept about it and I am learning.
I’m not finished learning yet in school or in life, but I hope I will do the best I can in everything I do, learn all I can at every opportunity, and do all I can whenever I can.


Kaitlyn Faith