Tomorrow morning is my first day back at school. I mean, I’ve been in and out this summer, but this week I have some plans to carry out, so I’m considering it my first day back. Tonight I’m filled with all of that new-year-ahead-excitement times about fifty billion because I feel like I’m knee deep in the kind of projecty goodness that I love. I know in a matter of weeks, the year will get rolling at breakneck speed. And we always have a choice to be pulled along or to navigate it our way. Looking back over 12 years in education, what would I tell someone new to the profession? The same things I’m telling myself right now at the start of a new year.
1.) Be realistic. It’s impossible to do everything for everyone and be everything to everybody. Trying will only leave you running for an unreachable goal piled with frustration, irritation, and a complete lack of satisfaction in your own efforts.
2.) Be authentic. You can either follow your desire to please everyone around you at impossible odds, or you can follow what’s written on your soul. One of those will get you into trouble, and a hint: it’s not your soul.
3.) Be passionate. Passion can either drain you, or sustain you. When you make the mistake of being passionate about everything, everywhere? It drains you. When you go all in for the “thing” that matters most? Passion might wake you up at 3am with ideas, keep you pushing over the hurdles, but it will also be the rush of joy that gets you up the next hill.
4.) Be creative. Make time for it. When my camera sits too long, it means something. It means I haven’t been picking it up, which means I haven’t stopped long enough to take a closer look at the details around me. Noticing that I’ve stopped means being aware that I’ve gotten too busy running after things.
5.) Be purposeful. If someone stopped you, in the midst of your day and asked, “Why are you doing this right now?” would you have an answer? A real answer as to why that very moment matters to you and your day and the people who depend on you?
These tiny moments add up and another school year will fly by before we know it. My daughter will be another year older (and a teenager… yikes!), the Apple Watch will become old news, another candle on the cake, another holiday will come and go. But none of us go into education without an awareness that every tiny moment of our day matters and it is a chance to do something. Not just something to pass the time. So we have to be careful that we stay mindful of every little something. The joy, the challenge, the nervousness, the sadness, the celebration… all of it. Because it’s the stuff that life’s made of.
