The Summer of George
I am in the first week of summer break…or is it the second week? Who knows? 🤷🏼♀️ I’ve learned that different educators decompress in different ways. Some are on the go with their kids, graduation parties, family vacations, lake days, etc. and their speed does not slow down in the summer; their focus shifts. Other teachers enjoy a slow start to their summers. They stay in their pajamas, slowly sip on coffee while sitting on their decks, or tackle the list of books that they’ve been waiting to read, with the occasional grad party to attend. Some teachers find a middle ground and choose to have a part time job just so they can remember what day of the week it is.
Me? I do a little bit of both. It depends on how my school year ended. It also depends on the weather. Can I plant my garden now? Or is there still a chance of frost? (Summer break & risk of frost is a common concern in northern states, seems conflicting, doesn’t it? It is. 😊) Sometimes I am eager to clean the house; other times I am completely discouraged by the amount of dirt and disorganization that I need to read a self-help book to remember that I am not a complete failure of a home-owner, wife, or pet parent.
Then, there comes the window of self-care indulgence. A 90 minute deep tissue massage? Booked ✔️. Golf league? Eh, I’m not ready to commit. Staff outing to celebrate each other? Maybe, what are we doing to celebrate and what staff members are attending? I’m not sure I want to celebrate ALL of them. 😉Paddle-boarding? YES! Always yes (except I need to clean out my car and organize the garage so I can find my paddle board). Buying a gym membership and signing up for the class that is going to get me a six-pack in less than a month? That ship has sailed. I’m looking for more of a punch-card-style gym to sign up for a class that will help me feel stronger but not be so exhausting that I skip class because it feels too hard for me on summer break. It’s a tough balance to find. Trust me. Can someone please let me know when they do?
This is the first year that I have refused to make plans. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. I have intentionally planned time to decompress and have prioritized how I want to spend my time off. There. That sounds better. This summer I choose to wake up and do whatever I feel like doing. I choose to trust my intuition in knowing what I need to do to recover from a whirl-wind of a school year. You see, during the school year, I am constantly thinking, planning, responding, and revisiting work-related things from the time I wake up, until the time I fall asleep. Is this unique to just teachers? Probably not. Am I the teacher that is whole-heartedly invested in all of my students? Yes. Yes, I am. I am constantly thinking about what my students are doing. Does Johnny have enough food for the week? Is he home alone again? Is Jane enjoying her family vacation? Did Mike’s tooth fall out yet?
It is ingrained in educators to be thinking of the welfare of our students. After nine months of doing this, it’s hard to stop. It's been nine months that I’ve been invested in that child’s life. Dramatic? Yes. Also true. I never stop thinking about those kids. Sometimes I wish I did. Other times, I realize the kids are what is most fulfilling about my job. That if I think about them, I am not failing them. I wonder if the kids think about me on summer break…maybe. But most first graders think I live at the school. Emotionally, I do. Should I set up emotional boundaries? Maybe. Am I going to write about it? I don’t know.
In this moment, I’ll raise my coffee/seltzer/beer/margarita 🍻 to a summer of golfing when I feel like it, gardening, campfires, being barefoot, creating content (I still can’t believe I get a kick out of creating lessons), paddleboarding, grilling, reading, and whatever the f**k I feel like celebrating. I’ll compare it to the Summer of George (🙋🏼♀️raise your hand if you’re a Seinfeld fan!). Let’s go 🙌🏼
