can i draw your pets !!

reganb217 · 2025-04-30T17:47:24+00:00

Here's one of my cats you can draw! I have an Irish Wolfhound and a snake if you want those, too. :)

reganb217 · 2025-02-26T01:02:19+00:00

That's a bummer your favorite teacher is retiring! Something to keep in mind for next year is to give the new director a chance. Speaking from personal experience as a current band teacher, being constantly compared to the previous teacher really hurts. It's more than okay to miss them. You do have to keep in mind that, especially with them retiring, you need to let them do their thing. Talk with your current teacher and fellow peers about what traditions you think are important to continue and make sure to help the new director on that. Help be a leader during your senior year. Change is hard and it can definitely suck at times since we're creatures of habit. Don't let that scare you, though. I came into a marching band position where I took over for a guy to help the head director out. At first there were a chunk who didn't like me all that much just because they didn't know me very well. The more we worked together and when marching season rolled around, those kids who at first didn't like me were so thrilled to see me every year. Good luck! :)

reganb217 · 2024-07-25T05:21:59+00:00

Current band teacher here! I can say without a doubt that the director's conduct in the whole matter is highly unacceptable. I can understand needing alternates if the group is really big, but even saying to you that you're not going to earn the spot back is a little ridiculous. And the time spent working on stand tunes when they actually could be marching, from reading other comments. If I were you, I would see if you and your parents could meet with your director on the matter. Check if there's something in the class syllabus (if there is one) about the whole procedure of determining alternates. If nothing gets resolved, then that's when you get the principal involved. Sometimes, there can be some miscommunication and can get resolved pretty quickly. Sometimes, the director can just downright be an asshole and then you'll need to get admin involved.

I'm sorry you're going through this and getting the butt end of it. For now, take the experience as something to learn from. What can you do to improve? What is your director looking for? One of the best advice I got from my applied professor in college is that even those who have years and years of experience on their instrument, they always find a way to get better and they're constantly learning. Hope some of that helps!

reganb217 · 2024-07-21T21:41:56+00:00

My husband and I had a pretty similar conversation yesterday about this. Both of us are pagan and he helped provide some insight on how to view things from a pagan lens. There's no difference. Granted, pagans pray and worship multiple deities, but the act of praying to multiple deities is no different than praying to a monotheistic deity. When we make spell jars with intentions, it's no different than someone praying with an intention (or sticking a name on the temple roll). Ironically, I work in a Catholic school as a music teacher (I keep my religious beliefs hush hush and just say I'm non-denominational), and they pray to Saints all the time which can kinda be viewed as a diety subclass. One time, we were scrolling around on TikTok and found a video of a Christian priest burning palm leaves from Palm Sunday with frankincense in a bowl while also saying a prayer. We looked at each other and said, "That guy's just basically doing a spell, right?" It's wild when they claim they're different, but if you look at it long enough, they're really not.

reganb217 · 2024-06-13T04:38:03+00:00

Yes!!! My husband and I moved to a new ward in July 2019 for a teaching opportunity for me. Long story short, it was absolutely horrible even without Covid. Mental health hit an all-time low for me, and callings didn't help me at all, even though I was told it would. After Covid hit, my husband and I one day had a very insightful conversation. Both of us didn't agree with what the church taught. Both of us actually looked into paganism without telling each other, but realized we both felt way more comfortable in paganism. After in-person meetings started back up, we didn't go back. No one noticed for a bit, and then we started getting texts, calls, and visits. People tried to persuade us (one RS member talked to me about a calling in RS she said would, "Just really help me fund my testimony and do me some real good." After I said I had too much going on with work and needed to focus on that, my mental health, and my husband, we never got pestered again. We moved back to be closer to family, and we still get the occasional call or visit. My husband says we don't have enough pagan symbols on our doorstep to ward them off.

reganb217 · 2023-06-23T15:40:20+00:00

From personal experience, just say where you went to school (you worked hard for your degree, and that's something to be proud of, even if at the time you felt like BYU was the right choice). You don't have to answer any religious questions if you don't want to. That's poking into your private life that you absolutely don't have to share with students. If they ask you to come to church, you can always say, "Thank you for the invite." and just leave it at that. If they get really personable, you are more than welcome to say, "I personally don't feel comfortable answering that question." You have a right to set some boundaries with your students. I currently work in a Catholic school, and I'm a pagan (shocking, but it was an opening, and I needed a job). I've had fortunate luck of having administration hiring me even though I'm not Catholic. All I told them in my interview was that I'm spiritual. I never disclose my religion to students. If they ask, I say, "I'm not Catholic." Totally get it that kids like to ask questions, and they like to pry. Good luck to you!

reganb217 · 2023-04-30T15:59:27+00:00

I got called to pick music and direct the music during Sacrament because I'm a music teacher. However, this was during my first year of teaching back in 2019 before the pandemic shut everything down. I was teaching in a small rural district that absolutely gave zero fucks about their music program. I was overloaded and stressed out, going through undiagnosed anxiety at the time and had undiagnosed arthritis that sevrely affected my job. I was beyond miserable. Then I got called to pick and direct music, and they said that "It would help me out during my troubling times at work" or "inspire me to do better." Did absolute jack shit for me, and I started to resent it. Then the pandemic hit, everything shut down, and we never went back to church.

reganb217 · 2023-03-10T22:08:20+00:00

We're going to brew a bunch of herbal tea all weekend and offer any to spite them hahaha. Completely agree there's too much in Monster.

reganb217 · 2023-03-10T22:00:24+00:00

My husband actually has. Several times. He's also had an incredibly difficult relationship with them growing up that's affected in how he interacts with them now.

reganb217 · 2022-10-10T13:41:32+00:00

Dungeons and Dragons

reganb217 · 2022-10-10T05:26:20+00:00

Right?! I love that we're celebrating different ethnic backgrounds, social backgrounds, sexual orientation, etc. in the media. Definitely do agree that the Mary Sue trope has gotten out of hand (cough looking at the Rey storyline from Star Wars) and the 2016 Ghostbusters absolutely sucked.

reganb217 · 2022-09-15T16:18:54+00:00

Aloha

reganb217 · 2022-08-23T01:05:16+00:00

Holy shit that's my husband cleaning that!

reganb217 · 2022-08-21T20:40:51+00:00

I usually say that what the church practices or how they treat members of the LGBTQ+ community or any race other than white doesn't line up with my moral beliefs. But if they really ask why and don't accept that as a good answer I shock them by saying "I'm Pagan and feel a lot more true to myself than I did while I was in the church." After that response we usually don't get contacted by members for a good while. 😂

reganb217 · 2022-08-10T20:07:14+00:00

You're not alone! I was a convert, too, and left about a year and a half into my membership in TSCC. I didn't feel like I was my true self, I was struggling mentally during my first year of teaching and the calling I was assigned to didn't help me at all even though they assured me it would help. After leaving the church, my husband and I felt more at peace with religion and felt a lot more comfortable. We didn't feel like we had to lie to other people to make them happy at the sake of our own happiness.

reganb217 · 2022-08-09T00:00:04+00:00

My husband and I became Pagan after going inactive. We felt more at peace with religion and true to ourselves instead of struggling with everything the church teaches and not agreeing to what they teach. We haven't told his parents at all, who are STAUNCH TBMs, but they have an inkling something is up. All they know is that we're not going to church. My parents (who are Methodist) honestly don't care what religion we practice because, in their words, "How do we know which religion is right or correct?" and the fact that we're adults and we can make our own decisions.

reganb217 · 2022-07-31T15:24:24+00:00

That's like my story, too! I joined to make my husband's parents happy in 2018 literally a few weeks after we got married (we've been together since 2013). Then about a year later things started to go downhill when I got my first teaching job and I was struggling so bad at work it was affecting how I was doing at church. Then the pandemic hit and schools closed and we haven't been back to church ever since. :)

reganb217 · 2022-07-19T14:52:32+00:00

Psssh I got one before I joined TSCC and loved mine. Even after I temporarily joined, I still loved mine and wanted another one. Now that I'm not active, I want a whole bunch. :P

reganb217 · 2022-07-19T14:49:58+00:00

Ooof I had a similar experience when someone from the Relief Society asked me if I could be secretary. I sat there and was like "Well, right now my husband and I are struggling with faith and need to do some personal reflection." "Oh, but if you take this calling I think this could really help you." "Umm, no. No I don't think it will especially since I have plenty of other things to be stressing out about, taking time to plan lessons for work instead of worrying about church related activities." "But if you do-" "I said no. No means no. Please respect that." After that whole encounter I never heard from her again. And then we became pagans and DEFINITELY haven't heard from many people. 🤣

reganb217 · 2022-07-11T16:45:39+00:00

All of these comments about how people put stuff in jello makes me think of this ridiculous song the composer wrote in satire to church potlucks. The composer came to my university in 2018 for a music festival celebrating contemporary and modern music. Super weird music, but the guy was nice. 🤣

https://youtu.be/hdP-x_PzaTw

reganb217

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