…as I drove to work today, fighting the usual panic amidst the doom of traffic, I thought about where I worked. Really, really thought about it. And you know what? I really enjoy my job. I love the environment in which I teach in now.
It’s not that I didn’t enjoy my teaching environment before. I did. I loved the kids and my colleagues. However, there were tensions that were building and I no longer felt that what I did was being validated. While it was validated by my peers, it was not being validated by those whom I worked for. And when that happens, working is no longer fun.
Walt Disney said, “I hope we never lose sight of one thing, it all began with a mouse.” This applies a great deal to education. The administration I worked with are great innovators who always strive for looking at a better way. A constant question, perhaps for this way of thinking, would be “Why continue on this path when it’s possible this may be better?” There is a lot to say for this innovation. I like this way of thinking. I advocate it. Most of the time. However, there is also a time to remember it begins with a mouse. Sometimes it is okay to be simple in the approach because it is the best thing for students: this is where it began. What is best for the students? And so, I hadn’t realized how much I wasn’t enjoying my time there anymore until I was no longer there.
The university in which I teach three days a week is rapidly growing. I have the unique opportunity to be in a university that is not only growing as an institution but is also growing as an academic culture. So rarely does a person have that opportunity, but I do. I have that chance and I am able to enjoy it with out the tedium of meetings, emails, tension or political drama that radiated from my former work place. I get to just be.
From the moment I park my car and walk to my first class, I walk under trees and green space. I pass by students practicing scripts and monologues for drama. I hear at least five or six foreign languages being spoken. I hear singing in the practice rooms as well as various instruments being played. Students are in various modes of dress for all styles of dance. I teach across the hallway from the auto shop and down the hall from the campus police station. We share the halls and tree-lined space with art students. The new technological science building is annexed to mine. Students are trying on new ways of thought like back to school clothes — some fit, some they’ll grow into.
I love this new place, more than I thought I would. I began resistant to being there. In being back in a classroom environment. I wanted a clean break. Be someone new. Yet in the end, I’m a teacher. That’s who I am. It’s my calling. I just needed a new place to find my joy again.
Published by ShadowTeamsNYC and represented by Lisa Hagen Books
- Recovery From Quarantine - November 9, 2020
- Inspiration in Quarantine - April 30, 2020
- By the Moon’s Light - March 17, 2020
it is nice to love what you're doing. . . and new digs can help. glad you've reconnected with your joy.
so glad to read that you have found your joy again. I could feel that from your writing. Lovely images. lovely thoughts.
You have inspired me with this. It is time for me to be honest with myself about the work I do.
Thank you.
I am so glad you are finding pleasure and a place to hang your hat! I certainly recognized a difference in you from the time you began with my daughter to the time you finished with my son. Something was missing. I'm glad you've found it again!
"I just need a new place to find my joy again" really spoke to me.