Dr. Randy Pausch (author of The Last Lecture) once suggested that we have a choice to either be Tiggers or Eeyores. I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, I felt myself slip in a bit of an Eeyore mode today when I started talking about school with some friends, and it ticks me off. What's worse is that I think I spread a little bit of my Eeyore spirit, and I feel just awful about it.
The worst part about feeling like an Eeyore is that the transformation took me by surprise. I'm usually much more of a Tigger, especially when it comes to school. In fact, I vowed not to become an Eeyore, but alas I felt the Eeyores start setting in last year as I found myself dealing with a few students who really pushed me to my limit and as I let myself get sucked into some slimey school politics. I knew it, though, and thought that my very relaxed summer had chased the Eeyores away. Today I realized they decided to cling on a little tighter than I thought.
School starts in about two weeks, so that gives me a little less than two weeks to ditch my case of Eeyores. Unfortunately, I think I might need all the help I can get on this one...
P.S. I'm open to suggestions.
5 comments:
im going to call bullshit. you cant be all one or the other all the time. if tigger had been a real life person he wouldve been hyped up on so much crack to be like that all the time...probably robbing piglets piggybank for his next hit.
you're allowed to have the down days. thats what makes us not cartoon characters :)
Oh, how I love how you call bullshit on me, or anyone else when necessary. Clearly a sign of a true friend! And of course one of the many, many, many reasons you're on my "A" team!
Okay, enough with that. Let's go drink some wine... or vodka. You pick. :)
P.S.
Also, thanks for finishing out the metaphor and not mixing it as I usually do. That in and of itself aught to be enough to pull me out of the funk! :)
I agree in part with Alissa, "You can't be all one or the other all the time..."; however, those down days are indicators. My sister-in-law sometimes calls in sick with the mental "flu." She's mentally ill for the day. (It's not serious mental illness, but she knows her mental health is out-of-whack.)
My former classroom aide experienced a event last year when a student repeatedly flashed her back with a toy laser gun while she was baby-sitting a class of 7th graders. Eventually, she found the "gun" and pulled the trigger, expecting it to flash light... and it did. Later, she realized it was real enough looking to have been a real gun.
She was deeply affected, maybe even light Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She was emotionally ill for last several weeks of school. She went, but she was deeply rattled.
Sometimes we slip into a light depression over nothing, but sometimes we slip, because of some unresolved something. I hear your saying, "some students pushed me..." and "some politics slime-d me..." Those sound like unresolved somethings.
Summer hasn't erased the emotional "swelling," perhaps you need some emotional salve? (My favorite, along with Bible reading, is EFT. Here's an article http://www.emofree.com/Articles2/past-issues.htm )
I've done a lot of healing this summer over a lot of emotional "warts." This salve really helps!
;-)
Don
Don-
Thank you. I really appreciate that you get the whole teaching gig and that you picked up on the being pushed (I had a few instances not all that different from your friend's) and the politic slime. I think you, like Alissa, are right too. Thanks for the words of wisdom and support.
You know, when an unexpected reaction surges forth from the depths, it's just something that was always there and needed to come out. Teaching these days is just not what it should be. Kids push you to the limit and you can't push back. School politics stay entrenched for years. I honestly don't think humans were supposed to operate in such an environment for long periods of time - some things are just too negative to do much good.
However, there are of course the good things about teaching. The good days (or hours), the good kids, the bad things (and kids) that turn out okay. I guess it just depends on the balance of good and evil that one receives.
Anyway, I hope your first day went well!
Post a Comment