Let me back up for those of you who are not regular readers of this blog. For 18 years, I was the yearbook advisor at my school. Even in normal weeks, my afternoons were filled with games, events, play rehearsals, and band performances. My weekends very often involved editing photos and uploading them for tagging. Spirit Week, as you can imagine, was all of this on steroids. Our school is on two campuses, so each day meant running from my classroom to the elementary campus for pictures. The parade, pep rally, game, and court on Friday led to a Saturday filled with editing and uploading before heading to the dance where I took about 400 pictures in three hours. Sunday was about dealing with those, and I was teaching again on Monday (I hadn't stopped teaching during spirit week). Please don't read any of this as a complaint. I did it for 18 years because I loved doing it. But, loving it doesn't keep it from being a lot to deal with.
In April of 2022, I approached my principal about giving up the yearbook and spent last year handing it off to someone else. While some have worried that I would have mixed feelings or a sense of great loss, I haven't. I figured out what I was getting from the yearbook that I didn't want to lose and created a role for myself that would provide that. Mostly, I have been enjoying going to a volleyball game when I want to rather than when I had to, planning to see a play without having already seen two rehearsals, and attending fitness classes at the local YMCA (by the way, we are in our annual fundraising time, and I'd love for you to support the work they do for the community because it is amazing).
As I did my lesson planning for this week, I was happy to see that I could keep doing whatever I need to in order to move forward in the curriculum. Each day, I enjoyed seeing students in their costumes without needing to chase them down the hall with a camera. I was able to participate in the parade, waving at the camera as I walked by. I participated in the teacher lip-sync battle at the pep rally, something I hadn't been able to do in years. I went to the game and didn't watch it because I was able to stand in the alumni tent talking to former students. I chaperoned the dance last night with empty hands and left when the first shift ended, getting home at a perfectly reasonable time.
Again, please don't hear any of this as a hatred of the last 18 years, simply as a comparison to show that I let go of this at exactly the right time. I loved doing it, and, because the timing was right, I am able to love not doing it without having negative feelings about it.
When it is time to let something go, I encourage you to put thought into why you were doing it in the first place and then figure out how to keep the positive aspects of that thing in your life in a different way. The time invested is worth the emotional payoff.
*There is no such thing as a normal school week.
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