Tezcatlipoca - self reflection, Xipe Totec: transformation.
TW: mention of suicide, depression and trauma. I want to talk about my first two years of teaching and how those were the most difficult years of my career. When I graduated from college I didn't necessarily go into teaching right away. I graduated in 2016, right after I got a job through AmeriCorps as the Migrant Youth Leadership Coordinator at WWU. I was so excited because this conference was something I was part of when I was in college but it was also a conference I co-founded when I was 17 as my senior project in high school. It meant a lot to me to be able to run it for 2 years, working with my community and especially working with migrant youth in Skagit and Whatcom counties. Through that process, I was able to be part of so many great things that our youth was doing. It was inspiring, life changing, and most of all it was raw and honest. That's when I knew I needed to go back to school, to get my teaching credentials. I wanted to do more, at that time I though...