Dear Oprah,
     So where to start? I'm so eager to tell you about the day I met Valary...it's such a cool story...but I think you first need to hear what prompted me to start this blog (something I have never done until now). It's an equally cool story. And when I say "story", I really mean Spirit Filled Chain of Events.
     The chain started this past Friday, January 13th. I was at a professional development "inservice" at school (I teach 3rd grade). As a team building activity, we were asked to write down a word on an index card. This word was meant to represent us in some way or even be a type of "goal word" in lieu of a New Year's Resolution. "Inspire" was my first choice, as that is my primary goal for what I aim to do with my 3rd graders everyday, but instead I chose "energize" hoping it would motivate me to keep on moving through the upcoming rigorous weeks of January.
     Tempted to sleep in the next morning, I woke up and considered lounging in bed for a while. But then I heard my word cheering in my head: "Energize, Katie!". So up I got...but after pouring my cereal, I immediately hit a road bump: what should I energize to do? The usual to do's just weren't inspiring me. I felt like I was in a rut.
     I hopped on my TED CONFERENCE app looking for energizing inspiration. A list of possible categories came up. As my eyes scrolled to the bottom of the list, there was a tab for the "inspiring" category. My abandoned word! That's when I began to feel the surge in my chest that rose up through my shoulders and out through my fingertips.  It was weird...and exciting. I felt something like a ringing hotness that went through my body. I know it sounds odd, but it was like a force of energy or something. I tapped on the tab and put in that I was looking for an inspiring talk that was around 5 minutes in length. Up popped "Matt Cutts: 30 Days to Try Something New". I was in.
     Matt explained that when in a rut, he had decided to follow Morgan Spurlock's idea (Super Size Me) of trying something new for 30 days and in the process had learned a fun way to set achievable goals to finally do those things that he had always meant to get around to but hadn't yet. His lighthearted speech did what I had hoped...I was now inspired to get energized to do something new for 30 days! Then came the next hump: what??
     I was thinking about the possibilities as I put on my shoes to go check the mailbox. I seem to do a lot of good thinking between the house and the mailbox for some reason. But just as I was zipping up my boot, there you were on the tv, wiping your tears as you watched YOUR African girls walk across the stage to accept their diplomas as the first graduating class of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls...and that's when it hit me: I was going to spend my 30 day self challenge writing to you to earn MY African girl a spot in your school.
     An even stranger thing happened then...one that I hesitate to write about because it was again weird and very personal and yet I can't fully explain it: I started to cry. They were sort of happy tears but they also felt heavy with responsibility...and also, I think, fear that the shedding of their hopefulness might go unanswered. But I can't not try. And so here we are on day two of the journey.
     Hope this finds it's way to you...will write tomorrow and begin to tell you the story of what lead me to Valary. Until then...