We stood there in front of Miss Holizki’s room waiting for her to open the door. We knocked once more and heard a quiet “come in.” Brandi and I walked into her room and sat down in two desks beside her big wooden desk. We were late, but we weren’t very scared to talk to her; because she’s a nice teacher whose favorite cartoon character is Papa Smurf from The Smurf’s.

I sat there taking a look around and getting ready for whatever she was going to say. I felt warm and safe inside her classroom. She sat there staring into her computer; I turned to look at Brandi and she looked at me back. I knew she wanted to say something, so did I, but nothing was coming out of my mouth.  Finally Miss. Holizki looked at us, “Hi girls.”

Brandi and I both said hi back and that’s where the silence ended. “Miss Holizki,” I asked and she looked at me, “do you remember what your first date was like?”

She smiled at my question, it may have been a silly question but I was curious. “Yes, it was in junior high. We went to the movies and afterwards walked around town.”

Miss Holizki also told us that she didn’t always want to be a teacher. She wanted to be a lawyer or a police woman. Her first job was babysitting and that’s when she began to love kids.  So in the end, it just felt right to become a teacher.

“What’s your favorite food?” I asked her.

“Lobster, I love lobster.”

“I’ve never had lobster,” I replied.

“Lobster, mmm, lobster is soo good,” Brandi jumped in.
Just then I knew things were starting to warm up and it was going to be a fun time.

“What’s your favorite childhood memory?” I asked.

 “Hmmm, favorite childhood memory,” she repeated my question, “going to Disney Land with my family.”

We started to talk more about Miss Holizki and soon learned a lot of stuff about her. For instance,  outside of school she goes to a university for sign language, she likes to shop, spend time with family and friends and she reads a lot. Miss Holizki is very athletic she plays, soccer, volleyball, slow pitch and she likes to have fun and walk too. She collects willow tree figurines and her favorite holiday is Christmas. She likes Christmas the most because she likes to spend time with her family, and she loves to decorate and give out gifts.

“What’s your biggest fear?” I asked.

She took a deep breath and said “There’s a lot of things I’m scared of but let’s just keep it simple, spiders.”

Brandi smiled and replied, “Spiders are gross! And scary.”

Next, Brandi and I sat there listening to Miss Holizki tell us a story about an embarrassing experience she’s had in class. She started off by telling us that she’s had a lot of embarrassing stories happen to her. But one time she was talking in front of her class with a button on her shirt undone. Her undergarment was showing and after her class she went to the staff room; even though she didn’t even notice a button on her shirt was undone. She came back to tell the class, “you should really tell someone when something’s wrong with their outfit” and someone in her class asked, “Is this about your shirt?”

Miss Holizki says that being the youngest sibling is great and she got a lot of support, “I guess you can say I was spoiled,” she replied with a little giggle. And she learned from her older siblings’ mistakes.  However, being the youngest didn’t want to make me ‘out do’ them; she told us she just wanted to do her best. She tried hard to get really good grades and to make her parents proud. “I was kind of a geeky kid,” Miss Holizki laughed.  Yet, it’s that same determination to do her best that makes her one of the best teachers around.

We moved on with a question about sports, to which she responded, “I can’t really remember what the first sport I played was, it was either figure skating or swimming.”  She doesn’t really have a favorite sport, although she does like to play slow pitch out in the sun.

When she’s not teaching, marking, going to University, playing sports, or reading, Miss Holizki is keeping herself very busy getting ready for her upcoming wedding.  She is getting married soon in Strathmore and friends and family are coming to support her.

We had a fun time talking with Miss Holizki, she’s nice and outgoing. She made us feel warm and comfortable not awkward and weird. Miss Holizki is very cool and a really fun person, we’re glad she could put in the time to give us a chance to get to know her.