the universe is in us

I love baking. This is not a secret, we all know this. I especially love baking cupcakes, it's right there in my username after all. I'd made some chocolate cupcakes with rainbow icing over the weekend, quite a lot of them actually, with the intention on taking some into work.

I left some in my office, so people could take one when they came in to see me. I left some in the classroom, so people could take one during a lecture. When I spoke to colleagues, I let them know there were cakes. After all, who doesn't like cake?

I also signed up to volunteer with the school mental health team; both as a mentor for students to talk to but also to facilitate/assist in workshops on topics such as self-management, time management, mindfulness and stress management.

Lucy suggested I could look at doing a course of study in the field, maybe focus on counselling or social care or mental health because it's something I'm getting more and more interested in. I don't know if I could manage it on top of working but I keep thinking about taking early retirement to spend more time with Jack and Lucy so maybe I could do it after retirement to keep my mind working

I think I was always destined to be a geek. Or a nerd. Possibly both - I'm never entirely sure what the difference between geek and nerd is. I should probably look that up.

I was never the child that asked 'why' - that was my brother. I always wanted to know how. How does this work, how does that work, how does x make y. I was the child that took everything apart to see what it was made of, to see how it worked. Sometimes I even put them back together again - and sometimes things even worked after I'd finished. I was always fascinated by space and wanted to be an astronaut.

But I always liked science, and maths, and wanted to know how things worked, I read comics, and I enjoyed watching Star Trek, Doctor Who, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone - that kind of thing.

Can you tell I was never the cool kid at school?

Yeah, I was the nerd but because my brother was one of the cool kids - and a footballer - luckily, I didn't get picked on. One guy tried and Mark broke his damn arm. Got expelled for a week but yeah, everyone left dorky little Sam alone.

Unless they wanted help with their science or maths.. and then I became really popular.

I kind of loved that, tutoring other kids, helping with their homework. I never did it for them but I would sit and try to help. I loved that moment when I explained something to someone and you could see the understanding dawn in their eyes. THAT is one of the reason why I became a teacher.