The mountains we call life!
As if we haven’t heard it a thousand times that life is full of highs and lows and twists and turns. It’s something our parents tell us, our teachers told us, and something you can hear and witness every single day. Sometimes life seems glamorous when we are young (and, it certainly is at times and most definitely more times than not!), but it isn’t always glamorous. And, it is important to teach your children this, your students this, and all the people around you this. It makes that fall to the ground a little bit less painful in the end.
I am a new teacher surrounded by many veterans, but we all have bad days, the ones who are new and the ones that have tons of experience. I was recently evaluated and the class didn’t really go as planned, not at all, not even a little bit. It was stressful, chaotic, and more than anything it felt like a bit of a failure. That day was you guessed it…a mountain. But then again, in life, almost every single day is going to present you with a mountain (or hill) of some kind. It’s the reality and we must come to accept that when we plan things out in our head and they go in a complete different direction we recognize it is as a learning experience and not a failure. Now, not all people will lead you to believe this – you may not have friends, family, bosses, supervisors, leaders, or people that believe that a loss of profit, a bad decision, or a poor evaluation is a learning experience, but it is.
My evaluation did turn into a learning experience and a lesson to stick in my pocket. It’s one I can carry with me. That evaluation will make me a better person even if I would like to forget about it. This leads to the last part. I work with a wide range of students. Some that have family and a great home and others that aren’t sure where they will sleep that night. Students that eat out often and others that aren’t sure when their next meal will come. It came at just the perfect time. Less than 24 hours later I received a note about the impact I was having on several students.
What’s the point of sharing these highs and lows? Because it’s life. You can translate this to your own life, job, relationships, and chaos. Life is full of moments where you feel like you have reached the peak of the mountain and feel like you have met success, but you will also find challenges and frustrations right around the corner.
~jj
#ProjectKindnessBook
#AlwaysChooseKindness