Get To

 "I decided to fly through the air and live in the sunlight and enjoy life as much as I could."

-Evel Knievel

I'm not sure if I should be extremely embarrassed or extraordinarily proud that I am using a quote from Evel Kneivel to introduce my message this week. I'm going to go with proud and see how it turns out. The esteemed Mr. Kneivel certainly seemed to be a living testament to the idea that if you love you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I'm not sure that I completely agree with that sentiment. I believe that no matter how much you love what you do, there are going to be elements of the job that are not enjoyable, and there will be days, months, even years when it certainly feels like work. I can't imagine Evel Knievel never had a day where working out the logistics of some stunt didn't seem a little tedious. It doesn't take long to jump a motorcycle over 25 busses filled with flaming sharks or whatever. The majority of his time was likely spent doing far more mundane tasks which led up to the big, death-defying stunts.

 Too often, people leave careers for which they are extremely well suited because they have taken this wisdom to heart, and when they realize going to work feels like work, they allow themselves to believe they must not really love what they do, or perhaps they simply aren't cut out for it. I hate that this happens to people because I think it is avoidable. I was listening to MLB Network a few days ago, and they were interviewing a pro baseball scout, and he mentioned that a mentor of his said there are jobs we have to do and jobs we get to do, and always reminded the young scouts that theirs was a job they get to do. 

I like this sentiment infinitely better than the one about never working a day in your life because it is more realistic. It takes into account that no matter how amazing the job, there are going to be times when it feels like work that you simply don't want to do. It recognizes a certain perspective that our modern world seems to sometimes forget. 

There are days that I don't love everything that needs to be done by me. I don't love dealing with student discipline issues. I don't love having difficult conversations with students, parents, staff members, etc., but at the end of the day, I don't have to be the principal of Sullivan Middle School. I could go back to being a teacher, or go work in construction, or wait tables, or drive a truck. There are a million things I could do to earn a living, but I would only be doing them to earn a living; they would be jobs I have to do. I consider being the principal of Sullivan Middle School an amazing privilege. Even when the days are tough and the decisions impossible, this is truly a job I get to do. I hope you all feel the same.

As an added bonus to my loyal readers, I will cover one day of morning supervision for the first three staff members to email me their favorite thing about working at Sullivan Middle School.

EDIT: For the second week of this post, I will open this up to three new staff members (last week's winners are not eligible), so once again, send me an email with your favorite thing about working at Sullivan Middle School, and I will cover one day of morning supervision for you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Full of It

Image
"Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts." -Unknown I remember having to memorize all sorts of things in school. At one point, I could recite the first 30-some elements of the periodic table, all of the state capitals, the presidents in order, and the states in alphabetical order. I can still do the state thing, which blows my wife away because they did not sing that particular song at her Catholic elementary school. My kids probably can't do any of those things, but I see them doing things that I couldn't have even begun to attempt at their age. The age of information is transforming our relationship with information, with facts. There was a time when memorizing the periodic table may have been helpful because it saved you the time of pulling out a book to find it. The investment of time to memorize it presented a positive return in the time you would save constantly having to find it. Now that we are all carrying the sum total of the co
Read more

Oxygen Masks

"When you take care of yourself, you're a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better. " -Solange Knowles I was reminded this morning, as I almost slid through a stop sign, that in spite of some mild weather last week, we are likely several weeks away from the end of winter. This realization kind of bummed me out, to be honest. I had already let my mind turn toward thoughts of spring activities and getting back out into the fresh air, but this morning I'm reminded that it is still January. These thoughts let me to other thoughts about how quickly January has gone. Really, as we look ahead to parent teacher conferences and then PARCC followed by Spring Break, this whole semester is likely to fly by, and we will be enjoying those warm spring days before we know it, but his week is all about heart health, and I know winter is a time where it is easy to fall into some bad habits, so much like flight attendents remind us
Read more

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

"Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more." -William Cowper I am going to use this post to gush a little bit about the amazing faculty and staff we have here at Sullivan Middle School. This past week has not been the most fun. We have been doing MAP testing all week, so there were some technology hurdles to overcome and energy has been drained. However, the feedback that I received was very positive. Sure, there are some tweeks that we will make for the next round to make it better, but the thing that impressed me the most was the willingness of our teachers to seek information on their own. When they didn't know something, they asked. That is great for two reasons: First off, we have teachers who take the initiative. They did not just sit back and wait to be told. Second, we have teachers who are not to proud to admit they don't know the answer and who are willing to go seek that answer.  I have had several new teach
Read more