Joy

You Know Things are Going Well When...

Your boss comments on how happy you look all the time and how much you seem to be enjoying yourself.

You and your students laugh together more than once a class.

You are becoming a morning person.

You finally feel like you have a more steady routine.

You couldn't have better community members to share this experience with.

You stay up till 4am talking and its completely worth is because of the conversations that were shared.

You look forward to reading your students' reflection papers and journals so much that it doesn't seem like work.

You are learning to appreciate the simple things more and more.

You have accepted that climbing up to the top bunk every night isn't that bad.

You have become better at truly being present to another person or a group of people.

You lose at mini golf but you couldn't care less because you love the people you were playing with and you spent most the game laughing anyway.

You finally figured out that what you thought was the smoke alarm is actually where the door bell noise comes from and fanning it won't make the alarm stop.

You really enjoy being a vegetarian.

You are happy to see your students each day.

You are so grateful for all the constant support you are receiving from so many wonderful FJVs.

Your community mate annoys everyone else with laugh therapy and you are the only one who still laughs hysterically every time.

You pay more attention to the good then the bad.

Your heart still breaks a little more with each sad story that you hear, but you have not become bitter.

Your house didn't burn down when the candles were left on all night.

You laugh all the time.

You learn to eat new things and actually like them.

You call your tiny house home and it really feels like it. Mostly because of the people who are there.

You miss home and the people who have your heart, but you grow more sure everyday that this is where you are supposed to be. This is what you are meant to be doing.