Do we really know our teachers? Mrs. Schneider lives an eventful life outside of school. All of her hobbies have unique stories that show why she got connected with them. Get to know her more in the interview below.
Q: What music do you listen to outside of school?
A: Oh, man, I love a lot of music, but I guess the one I listen to the most probably would be Mumford and Sons. I like old stuff, like Dave Matthews and Tom Petty. I like some newer stuff, but I was a fan of the 2000s era.
Q: Outside of school, what is your favorite hobby?
A: Oh my gosh, you will find me either outside running a lot of miles in a row, or when we’re not in school, probably chasing my kids to whatever they’re into.
Q: Do you run competitively?
A: I do, but I wouldn’t say I’m super competitive. I sign up and do marathons and mostly half marathons. I compete with myself because it’s more about what I did in my last race and how can I improve it versus I want to beat the person next to me. That’s not what it’s about for me. It’s more for my sanity and for the fact that I love to try to keep myself in the best shape that I can.
Q: What kind of prep goes into marathons, and what got you into them in the first place?
A: I’ll be very honest. I loved running in high school, but I was a sprinter. I did it in college for exercise, and then after I had kids, I was feeling very like I didn’t have anything for myself. I got back into it a little bit, but as a parent, you focus on your kids. Then my dad got sick with pancreatic cancer and died. And in doing some walks to raise money for pancreatic cancer, my sister and I were walking one year raising money, and we said we should do a run, like those people are running. So we signed up for a half marathon the next year. We trained in our own spaces, because we don’t live near each other. Then we ran our first half marathon in memory of my dad. As we were running it there were people running the full marathon, and we said, next year should we do what they’re doing? The next year we signed up, that was in 2018, for our first full marathon. I loved it so much I was addicted that I went on to do a few more. The training is hard for a full marathon and very time consuming, whereas a half I run all the time.
Q: What is your favorite trip you’ve been on?
A: Last year, my husband and I went to Peru, and we hiked the Inca trail for four days and that was quite an experience. I want to get around to doing more of that with just my husband, because we have the same interest. I just love being out there exploring the beautiful parts of this country and all it has to offer and other countries.
Q: What is a 4 day hike like and why did you choose to do it?
A: It was wild. That is a whole other story where the reason we did that is because my husband got a very weird case of pneumonia and RSV two years ago at about this time, and he nearly died. Everything that could have went wrong went wrong. As he was on day 10 or 11 in the hospital and getting better, he had a setback and I looked at him and said, I’ll hike your stupid Inca Trail if you just get better and get out of here. All of a sudden it was like, he got better, and I’m like, you loser. The second he got out of the hospital I was like I’m gonna book this like I promised. It ended up being last June. Right after school got out we flew into Peru, and we hiked for four days. We slept at night in these tiny, little pup tents. We had all these people that portaged our stuff for us. Then on the last day, we made it to Machu Picchu. We paid for the extra tickets, where you can hike to the top of Huayna Picchu and look down at Machu Picchu. It was terrifying; we should have fallen and died, but because we were in such a hurry, because you only had so much time, we were running up to the top. We’re taking these pictures where one misstep and you’re dead, but it was such a great experience. Looking back at how all of it happened I guess it was all meant to be that way; I probably would have not said yes to that trip thinking it was selfish. I’d be away from my kids, but it was so worth it. I loved it, I need more adventures like that in my life.
Q: What is the biggest difference you’ve seen between being a high schooler and now being a teacher?
A: Oh my gosh. These kids have so many restraints on them, and their parents know what they’re doing at all times because they have them on Life 360 and they can track them, whereas what my parents didn’t know was good for me and good for them. I also would not want to trade life in this day and age in a heartbeat because of those things and everything they see. My childhood was far superior. I just, I feel like these kids have it way tougher because of those stupid phones that they live their lives around whereas we did not do that. We didn’t even know that was ever going to be a thing.
Q: What is a book that you think everyone should read?
A: Only because I’m a runner and I loved reading this one, The Slumber. That one was really good, because it was just a running story of somebody coming from really dire circumstances. But it was advanced 40 years from now, when the people that had the money, they had chips in their body to be a fast sprinter, and he competed against these kids without that. It was a really powerful story. I’m reading the Let Them Theory book right now and learning a lot about how to deal with people that are hard to deal with and not letting it affect me. I’m not done with that one yet, but I would think that would be a good one.
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