Jennifer BonnI recently retired from teaching after forty years. During that time, I have tried to balance my writing, my teaching, and my family life. Retirement is offering me the chance to spend more time with my writing and I could not be more grateful. Let m tell you about my passion for writing.My years in the classroom have taught me lessons I have used in my writing. One of the things that teaching has taught me is that every¬one needs some encouragement, even when life is full of bles¬sings. I enjoy providing that encouragement for both my students and my readers. Teaching also taught me the importance of community and relationships. I hope I can help readers find the way to build the community and life they need to be happy.Writing has always been an activity that gives me peace. I tell people I am usually smiling when I am writing. My specialties are parenting, running, education, and self-help. I self-published a teaching guide called Stay Away from the Girl's Bathroom. (The girl's bathroom at my school was where all the drama happened, so you entered at your own risk.) I write monthly essays for my local media in two maga¬zines and our newspaper. I have been published in a variety of magazines from Trail Runner to Atlanta Parents. I have a blog that you can reach at www.jenniferswriting.org, a Pinterest page that is found at https: //www.pinterest.com/jenniferbonn, and I can be found at medium.com. Writing is something that I love to do, but it is also something I have to do. Once an idea is in my head I feel as if I will not be at peace until I put it into words. I think about it constantly until I can work it out into the proper form. Ideas come to me from something someone said, an article in the paper, or something I see. I often think of a great idea when I am out running, and I come in to write it on my board before I forget. I have a small whiteboard on my podium where I write thoughts for my writing. I own about fifty journals and they all have some writing in them. I prefer writing out my thoughts in the journals before typing them out. There is just something magical to me about the feel of paper and pen.I am an avid runner and reader and although I have no idea what I am doing, I have fallen in love with gardening. I always love having flowers(especially roses) around me and I find I feel the same about being in a green space that I have helped create.I am blessed with an amazing family that keeps me on my toes. I have three children of whom one has just finished her first year in college and is living with us. My oldest gave birth to our first grandchild three months ago and I am enjoying being a grandmother. My husband John is my biggest cheerleader and my voice of reason. We have been married forty years. We have a cat named lowkey who is so large he has to shimmy through the cat door and has made an art of napping anywhere. My life is full of blessings and challenges and I hope you will enjoy reading my writing as I share all of them with you. Read More Read Less