What did she say?
Exactly.
Every year, due to our fall delivery yearbook schedule, we finish the project in June. It's standard for me and my students to be the only ones in the building the week after graduation, grinding to put together the very spread about graduation and putting final touches on the book to be delivered in August.
And then, at the end of June, I take a group of kids to the NSPA Gloria Shields Workshop in Dallas aka Addison, Texas.
The thing about this workshop is that it's work.
Even for me. I remember my first year at this workshop a few years ago and I attended the Advisor Course like my life depended on it. It was helpful. I needed those tips and tricks.
But now, the tips and tricks are handy, but I found myself running from the sessions. The things that work for a staff of 40 at a public school in Texas doesn't always match what works best for me and my staff of about 10 young women at a private Catholic school in Kansas City.
And that's okay.
As far as I know, Gloria Shields is the best of the best. But this time, as my kids came out and were animately talking about the ideas they had and how they wish they had more time to work on their projects and get things done, I thought, "Maybe there's something closer to home?"
Because as they were in their sessions taking in bits of pieces and trying to make it work for our unique school, I was doing the same in another room.
And I was utterly overwhelmed.
I ended up running into a fellow advisor from my metro area. She was circumventing a technology crisis for her students. I found her on a the ground of a ballroom with four laptops, plugging them into an ethernet connection one by one. She had Ubered to Best Buy to gather supplies - probably all the while laughing that this could have been avoided if her kiddos had remembered to log into their computers with wifi at home before traveling, as she had communicated several times before the group left...
Such is the life of a teacher.
But because I was avoiding the inevitable and ever-growing laundry list of things I could do to improve my publications, I sat down next to her on that ballroom floor instead.
She reminded me that the mere fact I was at a journalism camp in the summer with some kids meant that my efforts were already outstanding.
She confessed that typically if she goes to this workshop, she hangs out upstairs away from it all. She's a good friend and wife and mother and a good teacher as well for simply being there. But there's no need to fret or to overwork. She cares, but her life as a teacher is not her life.
And I think that's exactly what I needed to hear. And maybe what a lot of teachers need to hear.
You are already doing enough.
I spent the rest of the week popping in and out of the advisor course, talking to my wonderful kids about all the things they were working on, occasionally dipping out to finish Bridgerton episodes on a couch in the lobby, and surviving the four hours spent terminal hopping at the airport.
Besides just giving space for the kids to do their thing, we visited the Rainbow Vomit immersive art experience downtown before leaving Texas.
I won't give away the surprise just in case you ever go, but for us it was the perfect time to let loose and look for some magical peace.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but sometimes you can cleanse with some rainbow vomit.
I am already doing more than enough.
So with that in mind, I'll think about teaching in August.
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