Have fun - Day 6

I was having fun at the beginning of the school year with my adrenalin pumping.  However, now, the adrenalin is gone, so has the fun. Instead a kind of lethargy has taken over and I remind myself not to engage too much with students. For the school division, the latest fad is engage.  The teachers are to talk to students anytime they can.  Make connections because students with connections in the school, attend.   however my feeling is that I can engage too much. Otherwise I do believe they think it weird.

Relinquish yourself to God - Day 15

This may sound like a religious proclamation except that I have no religion in mind nor do I have any concept of what/who God could be.  Could he/she be one entity or many?  Does he/she have any direct influence on my life or simply an overall influence?  I have no idea.  All I know is that I don't control my existence and I can't simply believe my life is a series of random, Darwinian events, not because I believe this couldn't be the reality.  No, simply because I prefer to believe in the existence of God than a random, unknown alternative.  I like to think my Dad is somewhere, my Grandma is somewhere, my father-in-law is somewhere and even my dogs are somewhere.  I know that's ridiculously optimistic but that's the wonderful thing about the unknown.  It's the unknown.  And with God, I can just let go and believe that he/she might be the motivator behind some of the decisions I make and the decisions made by others.  I can be more forgiving of myself and likewise, of others.  They make mistakes and so can I.    

Day 1 after being sent back to the classroom after 23 years as a full-time or part-time guidance counsellor.

I do not enjoy standing in front of groups of students for extended periods of time so the idea of doing it as a regular teacher has filled me with horror for the entire summer.  And so, I sought refuge in the philosophical mantra.  First, it was “Zen.”  By that, I mean I try to stay as calm as possible and focus on the moment.  Of course, that only works for the five or ten seconds that I’m thinking about it.  Then there’s “just have fun.”  Now, the advantages of this is that it provides an active reason to focus on the moment.  It works great when you've got the adrenalin running high and aren't sure where to put it.  A problem with this mantra is that it requires a lot of energy and it's just too much energy to maintain.  It works great if you're about to go on stage to do a stand up routine or act a part in the play but not so good in the day to day grind of the classroom.  So, there's always just being yourself. 

Let people talk

So often we try to predict what they have to say.  The worst are the finishers, those people who finish your sentence like if I am talking to you now and you were a finisher, you'd be . . . .  Sometimes finishers are right.  I like to trip them up.  Not always possible.  We all like to feel a connectedness.  I like to add observations and experiences of my own that confirm what the person has to say even when I don't agree with them at all.  As you can imagine, this leads to all kinds of misinterpretations.  Everyone's my friend because I never contradict them which probably comes from my upbringing.  My mother never liked to be contradicted so even when she was saying things about me or my friends that I found abhor ant, I would just listen.