It's quite possible that you're at the apex of your career right now. You're moving, you're shaking....you're making things happen. As the world turns for educators, according to www.busyteacher.org, a teacher makes about 1,500 educational decisions in a day. What a ride, huh? Oh the twists and turns a work day brings: Big ideas, projects and challenges daily. While education is my world, as I sit and ponder about other occupations, I can only imagine the decisions an ER doctor must make in a day.
There will come a time when the ride will end. On my end of things, it was a building transfer after 25 years. As I've shared in a previous post, the one guaranteed thing that you can take with you are your memories. I hope yours are good ones. I cherish mine.
However when the ride ends, there will come a time when you'll get to look back and reflect on the blood, sweat, and tears that you gave to your profession.(OK, hopefully not the blood part, but I'm willing to bet there's been sweat and tears.)
Recently I was texting with a teacher from my previous building and she was feeling very overwhelmed with life. The spinning plates were mounting up and she was running out of fingers to balance them all. While I am not her boss anymore, for a brief moment I couldn't help myself, well, how about we say that I went into Coach Mode. My apologies for the off-centered image below, but I sent her this picture as a reminder:
A few years ago as we all came out of the pandemic, I handed these signs out to every staff member in my building and encouraged them to place it somewhere visible, so they could see it daily. This reminder hangs right near my own work desk. It still is a guiding principle of mine four years later. The importance of mindfulness and self-care. For a long time, our society forgot about these principles. If there was ever one good thing to come out of Covid, it gave each of us that opportunity to take stock of our lives. It was a wake up call for many that we needed to adjust the sails and instead of fighting against the tide, we should swim with it.
I gave a pep talk to my former teacher, now friend & coach and made sure she remembered to slow down and take each challenge one at a time. They say never ask a question when you're afraid of the answer, but in this case, I asked her, "Do you still have your SLOW DOWN sign?" It was a proud boss moment when she told me that it still hangs in her classroom.
It was right at THAT MOMENT, when I shared with her that in her golden years if she thinks back and remembers me as the boss who told her to slow down....what a legacy that would be. I'm not the only one who has their memories. While I have my 25 precious years packed up with me as I'm now embracing my new opportunity in a new building, I'm not forgetting that every person I led along the way has his/her own memories too.
Think about the current positions you find yourself both professionally and personally. What legacy are you creating for yourself? For me, I could think of no greater legacy than several retired teachers sitting in a cafe 25 years down the line and reliving the glory days, while remembering me as the boss who always reminded them to SLOW DOWN.