Eighteen months ago, I began this journey to my new dream - an elementary teacher. I began with excitement and a little fear. Things have been challenging, both last year and this one. I've learned and grown from each of those challenges, and I know that I'm growing toward the teacher I should be.
I've been looking for things to enjoy and finding them here and there.
Things in my class have been a little crazy since we returned from Spring Break. Apparently, the students think we're done. And we are definitely not.
And my university classes are winding down, so I have lots of assignments to finish up. I began to feel like I was fraying at the edges.
This week - this long week - I was thinking about things. I have had some successes and some, well, failures. I began thinking about the change that I made those eighteen months ago. I wondered where I would be today if I had not made that change. I thought about my previous job; what I was doing and what I would probably be doing now if I had stayed there. Several possibilities went through my head.
And I realized that I would not be happier in any of those scenarios than where I am now. In fact, I would be so much more unhappy. I am right where I should be, enjoying things as I should. (Even if I don't always "feel" it)
Then I thought about all I've been doing for my university classes. This time next year, I will be finishing those classes. I'll have another master's degree. I'll have a permanent teaching license. I'll have 3 years experience in teaching elementary school. All things to enjoy, even if the process now is sometimes not so enjoyable.
One day at the end of the week, I came into the house and my wife asked how my day was. I stopped and thought. It was not a bad day. In fact, it was a pretty good day. There were some challenges throughout the day; there were ups and downs; but things were accomplished and things were enjoyed.
I almost missed it because I didn't think about it.
My kids reminded me about enjoying this week. They began talking about the party we had at Christmas. It was a simple party, not very exciting on the party continuum. But they were excitedly talking about the simple things we did. How much they enjoyed it.
Enjoying doesn't take a lot of wild and crazy things. Enjoying can be decorating a cookie or stringing straw pieces on a necklace. Enjoying can be reading a book that has nothing to do with teaching and learning. Enjoying can be sharing a joke with a group of eight-year-olds.
I'm enjoying these next few weeks of school. After that they won't be my students anymore. But they will always be my kids. My enjoyable kids.
