# data[].attributes.body
I am Bailey Bernard and this is my wonderful and amazing partner and husband: Shane. I love this person so flippin' much to the point of nausea. It's quite disgusting, I know. We have been together close to 7 years now, with 2 years of marriage in June. We were a pandemic backyard wedding and the best part about it was laying on the ground, in my wedding dress, talking to my new husband about our dreams. It was lovely.

# data[].attributes.body
To me, education was something I was, truthfully, never quite good at. I struggled in high school and I struggled in my first couple years of college. To the point of academic probation and taking a year off from any schooling. I graduated cum laude in this photo. I graduated at the top of my class in this photo. I never thought I would get to this point. To me, education is everything. I have improved my way of life through education. That's why I love to learn and teach others.

# data[].attributes.body
When my husband and I first met, I didn't have a friend group I could truly rely on. Our friends are so talented, smart, and caring. We are doctors, engineers, teachers, principals, students, mothers, pilots, friends. And they accepted me. I can't thank them enough.

# data[].attributes.body
To me, ABBA is unbridled joy. There are several pictures of me dancing at wedding and I know I am dancing either to "Voulez-Vous" or "Gimme Gimme Gimme". I grew up listening to ABBA because it was one of the few CD's we had in our house. Music is a gateway to expressing oneself and for me, music has been a way to bring myself up and out. Many hours of studying and creating teaching content will do that.

# data[].attributes.body
I coached these amazing humans. I coached them in Speech aka Forensics. Having an ability to have students have their own autonomy over their craft and I am simply a part of that is truly a blessing.

# data[].attributes.body
Before the pandemic, I had had a year and a half of "normal" teaching. While I love it; it is the only thing I have ever wanted to do with my life and I see myself doing this for so long; I have never been more challenged and frustrated in myself. A fundamental challenge of teaching is coming to grips with this:

There is never enough.

There is never enough time. There are never enough resources. There is never enough you.
Teaching (and, in all fairness, a few other  professions as well) is a ten gallon bucket in which teachers are expected to carry fifteen gallons of stuff, and so we make choices (if they refuse to choose, things just spill anyway). And society is always trying to add more to the bucket. Need a new public health program? Let schools do it. People in this country don’t seem to understand some issue? Pass a law saying schools have to explain it.

The pandemic has only heightened this.
Teach both online and in-person simultaneously while ensuring that online students are receiving an equally rigorous education. Navigate masking and non-masking situations. Tell parents why their student is failing and being blamed because you have tried. And resourced your ass off.

Dump more and more to the bucket.

# data[].attributes.body
I am attending Mankato State University to obtain my Masters in English Literature. I want to teach college level courses in high school. I want to further my own self. I want to, someday, teach college level courses and bring up a new group of students. Those who are just learning for the first time or getting back into it. This is my second semester of my first year. I plan on pushing myself and finishing in two years. When I set goals for myself: I tend to complete them wholeheartedly.