Dear Family,
This has truly been one of the most exciting months of my life. If you’re friends with me on Facebook, then you probably already know the most exciting part, but I’ll get to that later to keep myself from getting turned around.
The first two weeks were just work until the last day of school on Thursday, the 13th. For the last three days, it felt like I was always welcomed into the main office of whatever school I worked in with a comment similar to, “This is going to be a hard day to be a substitute.” I think all of the teachers were probably feeling the difficulty of keeping students’ attention and felt bad for the 22-year-old who would be walking into a room of middle schoolers who have learned to consider any instruction given by a substitute as optional.
The approach I took to these end-of-year classrooms was to focus primarily on keeping as many kids in the classroom and at least pretending to listen to me for as long as possible. I figure that a large part of my job when the teacher is done grading for the school year is to just make sure there aren’t unsupervised students in various corners of the building.
This sometimes meant taking in stowaways.
I figure that if a student doesn’t want to be in their classroom for whatever reason during the last day of school, it’s probably better for them to be in my classroom than wandering through the halls or somewhere else.
My one condition was that the kid had to not lie to me.
I’ve realized that when teachers said stuff like, “I can tell when you’re using your phone under your desk,” and, “I can tell you’re not being honest with me,” they weren’t bluffing. Seventh graders think they’re really slick, but it turns out they just aren’t.
There were a few times when students would come into my class and pretend that they were supposed to be there. When I asked them whether they were in my class, some would tell the truth, and some would lie and try to pretend that they were a student who they noticed was missing.
The latter, as far as I could tell, only happened twice.
The first time, the kid told me his name was AJ. Conveniently, I’d actually already met AJ on another day subbing at the same school, and I knew that he was pretty noticeably a different ethnicity from this kid.
I told the student that I didn’t believe him because I knew AJ. He insisted that he was AJ, and his friends in the class supported him.
At this point, I told the student that the attendance sheet has pictures of all the students in the class. So I went to grab the attendance sheet and I heard him swear (in a way that I would describe as good-natured) and his friends laugh at him.
Once I showed him the attendance sheet, I told him that I didn’t mind him staying in my classroom if he didn’t have work to do in his assigned period. He just needed to promise not to lie to me anymore and to refrain from distracting his classmates.
Both this student and the other student who I caught lying in a similar way at this point agreed and told me their real names.
I don’t know how effective that method of substitute teaching is, but it seemed like the only way I could maintain some level of authority in these classrooms during the last few days of school. At least, without being scary, which I don’t think I’m very good at.
So that was substitute teaching—a lot of trying to earn some kind of respect from seventh graders in a new classroom every day over and over again. There was one class period where I just played catch with four seventh graders. That one was probably my favorite, and they each came back after leaving to go to the bathroom. It was a major success.
After school got out, I did my best to spend time with local friends and family, did everything I need to do in Maryland before leaving it, and taught English lessons. My family who I taught English too actually threw a little Eid party so that I could celebrate the Muslim holiday with them! The daughter did henna on me and we generally just spoke, ate, and had a good time together. I’m going to miss them.
I also got engaged!
Yay!
Those who haven’t spoken to me personally since Luke and I started dating, you probably don’t know much about him. That’s okay, since you now officially have a long time for that opportunity to come around. But I’ll give a quick recap of him since he will soon be a part of the full-time Famlet cast:
Luke and I were in the same YSA ward over last summer in Maryland. He had just gotten home from his mission at the end of June, and I had been attending the YSA ward for a few months already. He quickly recognized me as a member of his group from a multi-stake youth conference back in 2016 (or sometime thereabouts).
After this sudden reunion we became friends, though apart from one date in Maryland before we both returned to Utah we didn’t spend too much time together outside of church.
At BYU he asked me to give him piano lessons, which he claims now was largely an excuse to make sure we stayed in touch. We became close friends in Utah and went on a few hikes together, which were documented in two of my earliest letters (August and September of 2023).
In January we started dating (thanks to the help of a few mutual friends), and now we’re engaged!
He proposed last Saturday at the temple. We had gone to do an endowment session that my dad was officiating. Mom came along too and we had a wonderful time. Afterwards, Mom went home since Luke and I wanted to stick around the temple a little bit longer.
Shortly after a walk around the grounds with my now fiancé, I received a proposal outside the “wedding doors” of the Washington D.C. temple.
I’m very happy and excited. Dating Luke over the past five months or so has been such a wonderful experience and I feel like I’m always learning from him. I’m excited to have him be a part of my family and to become a part of his.
We’re getting married on December 27th and having a reception on December 28th. Let me know if you want to join the fun 🙂
And now, the long-anticipated chapter of this summer has finally come. After a few months of both my letters and Dad’s letters containing some kind of reference to my future Latvia study abroad, I’m finally there!
I got engaged and then promptly fled the country.
It was a pretty emotional last week, what with the combination of newly-engaged excited, plenty of consuming thoughts about planning a wedding, and the anticipated home sickness that isn’t too bad so far. But I still made it onto my plane to Germany without too many tears shed.
But after two flights, several Trader Joe’s cat cookies, and one movie adaptation of a Hercule Poirot story later, I landed in Latvia, effortlessly retrieved my checked luggage, and was immediately spotted by the representative for my program here in Latvia.
Thankfully, everybody’s very helpful reminders that I should not hop on any busses or trains should I find myself alone in the Latvian airport with no one to tell me where to go turned out to be unnecessary. (If you don’t understand why a perfectly capable and intelligent young woman might receive these reminders from three separate individuals, feel free to reference my father’s letter from October 2021. I personally have made no full, digitalized account of the venture detailed by my father for reasons you can probably figure out yourself, but thank goodness for fathers.) This lovely woman recognized me and my travel companion immediately and ran to us, gave us hugs, and lead us to a taxi outside.
Now, I’m safely stowed away in an apartment on the east side of Daugava River, which divides me from the Baltic Center, where I take my Russian classes.
My host family is absolutely lovely—a husband and wife in their fifties with a cute little dog. The couple is always happy to talk to me and even more happy to try to explain words I don’t understand to me. The dog quickly learned that I am very bad at ignoring dogs and so now comes to me and bats at my leg every few seconds that I spend not petting him.
He is staring at me as I write this.
I’ll talk more about Latvia next time, but so far I feel like I’ve learned and seen a lot. It’s colorful, both in nature and in buildings, and there’s a fascinating mix between modern European and old Soviet design.
Also apparently a lot of pagan traditions and tall people (hence the national proficiency in basketball (about the tall people, not the paganism)).
I’m learning a lot and I love it. I love spending time with people and learning more about a new place. I never really understood travel as a hobby before, but I may be starting to now.
I’m excited to tell you more about it at the end of July!
So remember, put December 27/28 on your calendar, and let me know if you’d like a wedding invitation. I love you all and hope you’re having as wonderful a summer as I am.
Love,
Sophie
Senior Contributor to The Famlet Monthly