This week marks the end of my second year as a teacher. It’s hard to believe I’ve already made it through 2 years of my teaching career and I still haven’t (completely) lost my mind (yet). But in all seriousness, I really do love my job. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Trust me, I’ve tried 😉

This past school year was full of a lot of ups and downs for me, with my grandfather passing away, my sister getting married, and the start and end to a romantic relationship. The only thing constant about my life is the craziness. Looking back, this year might have been one of the most difficult I’ve experienced in respect to my personal life and job, but God in his love and mercy always brings goodness out of pain and suffering. Although it definitely wasn’t a “fun” school year to journey through, it was a necessary one. One that taught me invaluable lessons that I most likely would not have learned any other way. So here are the top 3 lessons this teacher learned this school year…

1. It’s OKAY to Ask for Help.

I’m serious. You probably get told this a lot, but actually let it sink into your heart and believe it. You don’t have to do it all on your own. Even if you are in a leadership role where you feel like you have to have it all together. I learned this lesson the hard way. At my school, I am the 8th grade homeroom teacher which means that I am in charge of the 8th grade class trip AND graduation. That may not seem like a lot, but those two things alone nearly wrecked me this year. Those two events take a butt-load of planning and there are so many moving pieces involved. With the class trip, you have to figure out where you are going, when you are going, what hotel you are staying at, what activities we can do that aren’t over the top expensive, appropriate transportation, and don’t forget you have to make the trip educational too. Oh, and once you have that all figured out, you have to come up with a base cost for each student and figure out which students are actually going. And you need chaperones! And don’t even start on the amount of paperwork you have to fill out. Now imagine planning this on your own. Completely solo. On top of doing your regular teaching responsibilities. It seems like a nightmare, doesn’t it? Thankfully, this year another teacher agreed to help me out with the planning and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. By accepting her help, I was able to lessen my focus on planning the trip and do the part of my job that I actually enjoy – teach! The same thing happened when graduation came around. I had so much on my plate that I absolutely had to ask for help. It got to a point where I needed to be two places at once, and unless I could miraculously bi-locate that wasn’t going to happen. So, I was put in a position where I had to start calling in some favors. In the end, getting other people involved was the best decision I ever made.

I bring this story up, because I have not always accepted help in the past. Having someone else help me with something forces me to release a little bit of control over the outcome and a perfectionist like myself has a really hard time trusting someone else to do it “right”. Asking for help also puts me in a position where I feel inadequate, or not good enough, strong enough, smart enough, etc. But God really got me good this year. It got to the point where I literally had no other choice. I needed help, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull of this class trip or graduation otherwise.

2. It’s OKAY to Leave Work at Work

As a teacher, it always seems like my job is never done. There is always something I could be doing: grading papers, planning lessons, responding to emails, the list goes on and on and on… and as I have stated before, I am a perfectionist, especially when it comes to my job. So, even after working a full 7 hours at school and one to two hours after the kids leave, these thoughts would still be running through my head as I went home to my apartment. It got to the point where I felt like the only time I wasn’t thinking about my job was when I was asleep. And if I am being completely honest, I sometimes would think about my work in my sleep too. Not sure if you would consider that a “dream” or a “nightmare”. These re-occurring thoughts that I needed to be working on something were in the back of my mind even when I was hanging out with the man I was dating at the time, as well as when I was out with friends. That’s when I realized I needed to do something. My job was literally taking over my life.

So again, God allowed me to get into a situation where things got so bad that I had no choice but to confront the issue and accept the fact that I had a serious problem. I’m not going to lie to you. Enforcing those work and life boundaries took some time. It took lots of baby steps in the right direction to get to where I am presently. I started out by limiting the days I took work home with me, and even when I did take work home, I limited the amount of time I spent working on it. On the nights I knew I was going to be hanging out with my boyfriend or friends, I planned ahead and made sure I wouldn’t have any work to do that night. When thoughts of work popped up in my head during nights I was trying to relax, I acknowledged them, didn’t get upset with myself, and dismissed them knowing that I could leave the work till tomorrow. There are still some days where I am overwhelmed by thoughts about my job, thinking I could come up with better lesson plans, grade papers quicker, or email parents more updates, but now I know that those thoughts are just thoughts and I simply remind myself that taking time to relax does not make me a bad teacher. In the end, it makes me a better one.

3. It’s OKAY to Have a Bad Day

As I stated at the beginning of this post, this year was a ROUGH one for me. My grandfather passed away in September, somewhat unexpectedly. I started dating someone in August and we broke up the day after Valentine’s Day. The students I taught this year were more challenging than the ones I had last year. My sister got married and I felt like I wasn’t able to connect with her as much anymore. With that being said, there were many days I came into work exhausted and an emotional mess. As a teacher, I always do my best to not let my personal life affect how I interact with my students in my classroom, but this year I realized that expectation might be a little unrealistic. I am a human being after all, not a robot. I have emotions and feelings. I have good days and I have bad days and I dont have to completely hide that from the my students.

Now, I am not saying I should come in and openly discuss every detail of my personal life with my students or that it’s okay for me to get upset with students just because I had a rough morning. NOT AT ALL. But this year made me accept the fact that I will have bad days and there is not much I can do to prevent those. That’s just life. But instead of pretending like I’m great 100% of the time, it’s okay to have an not-so-great day and go easy on myself. In fact, my students will have bad days too, and I would expect them to be honest and kind within themselves as well.

So there it is! My top 3 things I learned this past school year. There are probably way more lessons I learned throughout the year, some that I am more aware of than others, but these three are the ones that really touched my heart the most. I hope they touched your heart as well. Teachers and non-teachers alike, I think these lessons are important for all of us to learn. Please comment below and share this blog post with your friends! Also, feel free to share what lessons you have learned this past “school year”. As always, I would love to hear your stories.

Blessing from Beyond the Wardrobe,

Nicole

P.S- I’m heading off to Ireland & England this summer, so be expecting a travel blog soon!