New Adventures

Since my last post, everything has changed. We're not in Sweet Home anymore, I have a new job, Grandpa is living with new challenges in a new space on the coast, and my egg layers have been reduced by one. My remaining chickens now enjoy a new coop in Corvallis and continue to give us sweet eggs even though they don't get to run free like before. Since we've all been in a frenzy of transition I feel like I've been holding my breath for what the new normal will look like. I feel relieved with many changes, challenged in good ways by others, and still uneasy somehow for how things will all settle out.

A huge part of this transition has been starting a new job. Instead of bouncing from school to school I now have a home base with a staff of 40ish and about 400 students who depend on me each day. I have felt my shoulders rising to my ears with tension as I navigate these new challenges and I try to maintain a steady calm through the turbulence.

Over the last few weeks people have asked me how I am liking my new job. Often, they ask as I've been hustling down the hall on my way to or from a melt-down with a student. Many days they ask on a day when I haven't had a chance to eat my lunch, fill my water bottle, or go to the bathroom and when I know that I'll be staying at work a few hours extra to get caught up at the end of the day.

Each time, I chuckle and tell them how much I'm learning. It's TRUE. I'm learning and getting better and figuring things out each and every time I interact with staff, parents, and students.

When I tell people this, when I explain how I'm liking it and how much I'm learning, I notice that my voice sounds tired but still positive. I hope that my honest answers will encourage them that it's OK to be tired but that they can still be upbeat. I hope that I can be both a peer and a role model as we all navigate our profession and the challenges of our greater world.

The last year that I spent somewhat on the periphery of teaching taught me SO much about our profession and SO much about myself in all the ways I did and didn't manage in it before. I'm aware at how much I took on in the past and I'm aware of so many things that I missed. I notice low-hanging fruit that seem to easy to reach, and appreciate how much more complicated it looks from another vantage point. I see how resilient and how courageous our students are each day and I want to smooth out the road ahead of them in any way I can.

I'm learning, through all this, what my place is. I feel more confident than ever that my place IS in education and it IS with students and teachers. I am hopeful that this year will help me learn more where my strengths can be best used in the future and that the doors will be open when I arrive there.