Becoming Unstoppable: the turn around

One caring adult. So many times I have seen this going around social media. I have always believed this and I have wanted to be that person for kids. But what about us? What about adults? This has been a dark and lonely highway this past year, and no cool wind came up. Just that hot Kansas wind that blows the heat around while not providing any relief. There I was. Lonely. Scorched. Desperate. My personal life spilling over to my professional life. So much  disarray. Feeling helpless. Continuing to try to stay with the times, to be relevant, to get my life and career back on track. But I am flailing. and failing. miserably. I think about a fish out of water trying to flop back into the pond, but it's really in the back of a pickup truck, so no amount of flopping will give it freedom. And the poor thing can't breathe. That's me. I'm flopping around and trying to save myself, not knowing that it isn't within my power. And then. One caring adult happened. One caring person... helping me to remember my "why." One caring person, helping me focus on keeping students academically on track. One caring adult, helping me decipher expectations that I can't seem to understand or translate into language that I do understand. So the truth is.... I might still lose my job.  But as I strive to get back to the teacher I once was....wait, to be honest and fair, once I get back on track, I will be a different teacher, not the old one. Once this change has a chance to take hold, I will be on the road to my one word: unstoppable. And no amount of hot July Kansas wind will be able to stop me. One caring adult = one teacher with fierce power and determination.

One Word 2020

So for the last few years I have been choosing a word, just one word. One word to strive for in the new year. But this last year, two years, have really beat me. I am down for the count. Discouraged, out of hope, feeling defeated. What's next? Whatever comes my way. I am down, but not dead. I am defeated today, but it won't last. Why? Because when you wake up at the very bottom of your life, with your hope gone, your ego deflated, your give-a-damn busted, there are not any other places to go.  It's dark and it's cold and it's uncomfortable at the bottom. It's dank. Not a place you can effectively wrap up in your warm blanket and hide from the world in. And you can see the light, you just can't reach it. So you have to get up. Move. Throw yourself up the wall and try to reach the ledge. You cannot stay in one place and find any warmth for your soul. So you move. Therefore, my word this year is unstoppable. Not in a confident, egotistical way, but in a, I-keep-falling-down-but-I-am-not-dead-yet kind of way. Here I go. I will just keep going. Even if it is at a snail's pace. I will not stop. Because I can go up from here or forward into the ever-expanding darkness, but I cannot stop. I will be unstoppable this year.