I am thankful for this heavenly fortune of being alive, and the freedoms I have to pursue happiness while enjoying this miracle.

There is much to be said for today's date.  I've said it in my journal.  I say plenty in my journal every day.  I write, I write, I write.

Most importantly, you don't have to "do what you love" (i.e. perfect job) but you should do things that you love while you are alive.  And hey, if it presents itself, go for that dream!

Where is mine leading?  Actually distributing pieces of writing in widely read publications, as long as they accept them.  I will be sending work for approval in June, a beautiful time of year for commencements.  I hope the doors will open where I didn't know they would be...

Where is yours leading?  Wherever you would like, so long as you remember to be brave, kind and curiously creative with your "God" given universal imagination.

Play with elation.

Your existence is a sensation

Update on the way...

Love and laughter with friends, family and gorgeous spring scenery pleasing the eye as far as this I can see

I am very lucky to have recently met so many people, and their smiles, and more come with a new day

You live brave journeys

I am thankful I have speaking, reading, writing, intuitive, listening, looking, seeing, and skills for loving life

Today the students in my first class finished their final exam.  They are Level 8, which is an advanced level.  I have been teaching them for two months.  Then again, before this I taught Level 7, and two of the students were in that class as well.  Those same two students were in my Friday lab class the previous two months, so I have been teaching them for half a year now.  One of them is moving on, but the other I will still teach, yet again on Friday's, as I have been given the most advanced Friday class again too.  Since I had been teaching Level 4 (very enjoyable students, but very limited capability for discussion of the kinds of things that swirl around this brain) for four months previously, I've been very happy to be teaching much higher level students recently.

Although I met the requirements of the job and taught them all the necessary grammar, vocabulary, readings and exercises from the assigned text, they had plenty of supplementary material from me.  Today they joked that I was really a philosophy professor.  It wasn't my fault though!  The book would give us some deep topic such as the future and robots, climate change, art, comedy, mysteries and so on, but there was only so much content in the book to cover four hours each morning, so I had to give them more materials, which I am encouraged to do by the school.  As you might imagine, I've been very happy to oblige.  On top of that, there are 6 units in the book and 8 weeks of class, so I get to teach them whatever I think is useful and will stimulate discussion for the final two weeks.

They're great people.  I really feel lucky to have had such a motivated, interested group.  I'm definitely heaping exorbitant praise on them.  They also felt tired and lackadaisical on certain days, but I could always count on someone to express their opinion or share an experience.  Most of all, I appreciate their smiles, insights and laughs making each morning brighter.

That's all for tonight.  I've been running up an incredible sleep debt (despite a 3-4 hour break in the afternoon, my day does not end until 10).