Happy New Year! This holiday always feels strange to me. In some ways it is just like any other day. It's also a great reset for the calendar, for the next stage of the school year, for someone to start acting on some resolutions to make one a better and healthier person.
I've been spending the better part of my break from school figuring out how I can reframe my mentality in regards to work. The first fifteen weeks haven't been happy ones. The basic job of teaching just feels harder. There are inane policy directives that make a hard job harder. And trust and pride are eroding in the face of withering and toxic culture wars waged at our school board. I know it's necessary for me to figure out a way to more positively approach the negative and idiotic elements of my professional arena.
A shot in the arm came from my son this break. He surprised me when he said that I (compared to the other dads in the neighborhood) struck him as a "jovial" person. Jovial? If he thinks that about me, I guess I'm not too gone.
As I return to my professional duties in a couple of days, I'll try to do so in a way consistent with that jovial label Sam applied to me. I need to be a warrior against the crummy, the insensitive, the bigoted, the myopic. I can do so in a happy way, though. With a smile. With honesty. With candor, perhaps when it's not expected. And that might be how I can model for those whose opinion I most care to shape how one makes their way through a storm.
