Whatever that means…
For me, for now, it means I go back to work tomorrow after a full seven business days off.
Honestly, I’m a little nervous. In some ways, it does indeed feel like the first day of school. And I’m approaching it like that, at least partially.
Certainly, I’ll be trying to keep in mind that we all just went through something big. Something that deserves to have its space, yet also craves normalcy to balance it.
So tomorrow, I’ll try to give my students, and myself, a little piece of normalcy. For some of them, I’m going to try instituting more structure than we had before the storm, because things were fairly chaotic. I don’t want it to remain so… I’m going to try to be even more clear with my expectations, so I don’t have to bring my mean teacher persona out. I’m going to try new strategies to help them buy-in to their education.
Because some of these students still don’t have electricity. Some teachers don’t either. Some students haven’t been eating regularly with school being closed. Some took refuge in the school while the storm was going on.
I remember after my separation from my ex-, and after my dad died, feeling guilty about the days where I felt normal. Yet, I now realize I needed those normal days to help me cope. I needed to not always feel “on.”
Tomorrow, the first day back after Hurricane Irma, we will need to be kind to each other. We will need to be patient. But we also don’t need to sit and stagnate.
“What’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wisdom is doing.”
From Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
I’d rather take the path of action than inaction. So we’ll most definitely be working on biology tomorrow.
But maybe we’ve all learned a little something about helping each other and being patient in the face of adversity.
There is a quote that minimizes surviving the storm. It says it’s more important to learn to dance in the rain.
Sometimes surviving is enough, for a little while. You survive, you build yourself back up, and then you dance. If you are still in survival mode right now, that’s Ok. Take the time you need. The music is still playing, and it will be waiting for you.
If you are still in survival mode right now, that’s Ok. Take the time you need. Everyone’s path is different. The music will always play, and it will still be playing when you are ready.
And don’t forget, normality is relative. Maybe we’ll all create a new normal. And how glorious that dance could be.