Fall Break is here

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So the first thing I need to write about is how quickly break has come this year. Every year before it has seemed like it took forever to get here. This year I feel like we just started the year and now boom, it's break. This has never really happened before. Usually, by late September I'm struggling to hold on until break. Not this year. Time literally just flew by and it was nice. I hope that it keeps going until Christmas.

 Part of the reason time is flying is that I'm really enjoying this year. For the 8 previous years, I've felt like an imposter. I have felt like I don't really know what I'm doing and that I was a fake. Turns out, I'm not a fake. I actually do know what I'm doing and I'm pretty damn good at it. For the first time in 9 years, I'm really putting an effort into my teaching. I'm trying to plan ahead. I'm trying to be the best teacher I can be and it's paying off. It's really paying off. I enjoy work and I enjoy teaching and I'm really, really enjoying this year.

 Because of all of the above, my anger level is much, much lower. Last year I would get angry fairly easily. I think I was frustrated and taking it out on the students. This year I'm not. I have adjusted some of my methods to accommodate them and it's paying off. They are doing better, I am doing better, and we are having more fun.

 To keep that going I have been making an effort to avoid negative people. One of the new teachers, who I thought would be a good fit and who I like, had become really negative and anti-school. There is also another teacher who has been there 4 years, who can be kind of negative also. I am making an effort to just avoid them. I have worked at a place where the air was full of negative energy and I don't want to work at another place like that. I can't control what other people do, but I can control myself. I chose to be happy and I chose to look on the bright side. I'm not hiding my head in the sand. I know that the school is not perfect and I know that things could be better. But I can't control those things. I can only control what I do and how I react and I choose happy.

I spent a large chunk of my life waiting. Waiting for the weekend. Waiting for vacation. Waiting for money to get better. Waiting for life to get better. I missed out on a lot of things that were happening in front of me because I was looking towards the future. I'm done with that. I'm living in the here and now and I'm making the best of things. And I'm doing the same thing with work. I want to teach. I enjoy teaching. So I'm making the best of it and living in the moment. I refuse to be miserable in my own life anymore. Okay, enough philosophizing for today. I wanted to get down some thoughts about the year as we enter the break. Off to have fun.

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