My brain was buzzing, my muscles tense. I had a million thoughts swirling through my mind, and couldn’t seem to put them on hold. I knew I should hang it up and go to sleep, but I just couldn’t seem to settle down. Was I about to embark on an epic journey? Participate in an athletic competition? Face a major surgery? Nope. I was about to begin a brand new school year at a brand new (to me) school. My adrenaline was pumping.

Every year it’s the same. There’s a period of time over the summer for recovery from the previous school year, then excitement begins to build. New kids’ names are memorized as they’re entered into spreadsheets and studied from a data point of view. Sheets from former teachers are also examined, and information gathered. Preliminary groupings are created, beginning of the year seating charts are developed, and room arrangements are finalized (only to change again during the first few days). Lesson plans are developed, charts and posters are created and hung, and supplies are gathered and distributed.

My head knows I’m ready, but my heart is beating out of my chest. This is the moment when fantasy hits reality. Until the students actually show up, the entire year is an unknown. It may be the best year yet, or it may be the worst. I may hit my professional pinnacle with this group, and help them learn and grow in an unprecedented way, or I may bomb. In my head I know I won’t bomb, but there’s still that tiny voice of doubt. The real excitement, though, is in the idea of the perfect year. The night before school starts is the most exciting night of the year. It is full of promise and potential, but I can’t wait for it to end so the real work can begin.

September 12, 2013
by BulgingButtons 2 Comments

Daily Passion Prompt 8

TODAY’S QUESTION

Which five websites do you visit most often?

Oh good! An easy one.

1. This one. http://www.bulgingbuttons.wordpress.com . Yep, it’s my go to website, although not my homepage.

2. Google. This is my homepage at home, and I use it for all sorts of things, just like you do. Work, play, images, directions, phone numbers. You know how to use google, I don’t need to tell you.

3. An educational portal for my students called eboard. This one is my homepage at work. On it I put weekly spelling and vocabulary words, links to websites I want them to visit, messages for parents, and other general information. I update it weekly, based on our curriculum. There is an annual fee for this site, but I’ve been using it for several years and have tons of information on there that I use annually, so for me it’s worth every penny.

4. Facebook. Yep. I’m not proud.

5. Pinterest. See number 4.

September 5, 2013
by BulgingButtons 5 Comments

Daily Passion Prompt 1: Failure is NOT an Option

TODAY’S QUESTION

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Now how is that for a big question? I’ve decided to give Dean Bocari’s daily passion prompts a go. I know I won’t do them every day, but they will be posted for the next 39 days, so the challenge is there. I may be a bit challenge happy at the moment.

Back to the question at hand. What would I do if I knew I could not fail? How to even go about conceiving of such a situation? My immediate thoughts go to my son and raising him to be the kind of man that he ought to be. What could I do to help ensure his future success? Maybe I could take a small investment and parlay it into a small fortune of the type that might pay for a top notch education? If I couldn’t fail, I might as well do my “investing” in Vegas and have a whale of a time doing it, too. But financial security is no guarantee of success.

Having the money for an upper echelon education doesn’t prepare one for its rigors. Money can’t teach a strong work ethic, tenacity, creativity, risk taking, and people skills. In fact, in my experience, it’s those strengths that allow people to acquire financial gains. Let’s face it, money is the effect, not the cause of strong character traits. So while I would love to amass a small fortune, just to take the edge off a little, it isn’t my goal in and of itself.

Instead of a focus on pure financial gain, I would want my “can’t fail” risk to involve personal growth that would serve as an example to said son, while having the delightful benefit of providing the aforementioned nest egg. So what it comes down to is this, if I knew I couldn’t fail I would take a year off from my current career and focus on living a creative life. I would write and sew and paint. I would hike and swim and travel. I would create poetry, take photos, and visit theaters near and far. I would get healthy once and for all, experimenting with new recipes, hiking new trails, and learning to use my body in new ways. Maybe I would dance or box or do yoga. Perhaps I would try Zumba or white water rafting. During that year I would record my experiences and my thoughts on them. Then I would publish that memoir. Naturally Oprah would love it, and it would become an instant best seller.

Oh I know, the world can live without my self-absorbed prattling, but there are moments, flashes really, when I feel like I have something important to say. Sometimes I’m able to get it down in the way I imagine, and other times I’m not, but I still like to believe that there is an audience for me. There are others like me fighting the battles I’m fighting, reinventing themselves every day, and challenging themselves to be their best. If I knew I couldn’t fail, I would be honored to walk among them and be their champion.