Finally, and critically, thank yourself.
As we wind down this academic year (and this blog? I still have to figure out the next steps for this), may I encourage you to do one thing before this year ends?
Please say “thank you.”
Find 10 minutes, just 10 for appreciation and gratitude. Go somewhere quiet. Put on your earphones or put in your earbuds. Sit alone. Reflect. Take out a piece of paper or use your phone and make a list of those to whom you might say, “thank you.”
Thank your family and friends, your boyfriends and girlfriends and other friends and significant others who have supported you in this work.
Thank those who welcomed you to your school, thank whoever who hired you.
Thank the parents who entrusted their children to you.
Thank the students who sat in your classrooms, who played on your fields, acted on your stages, made music in your rehearsal spaces, deliberated in your student councils and mock trials and Model UNs.
Thank your colleagues, those with whom you have journeyed this year, for their guidance, support, and love.
Finally, and critically, thank yourself.
Give yourself credit for all you have done, for the long work you have begun, for the way you have influenced your students, for the gift you have been to them. Thank yourself for getting near the finish line, for perseverance, for faith. Thank yourself for each time you went on when you thought you could not, for each step you took when you were exhausted, for each time you went the extra mile or five or ten. Thank yourself for being part of this vocation, this incredibly important work.
Bottom line at this busy time of year: if you can only steal a moment to thank someone, to show your appreciation for one person on this list, make it yourself.
You deserve it. Know that in your heart. Feel it in your soul. Repeat it in your head.
You.
Deserve.
Thanks.
Give it to yourself, please.ude. Go somewhere quiet. Put on your earphones or put in your earbuds. Sit alone. Reflect. Take out a piece of paper or use your phone and make a list of those to whom you might say, “thank you.”
Thank your family and friends, your boyfriends and girlfriends and other friends and significant others who have supported you in this work.
Thank those who welcomed you to your school, thank whoever who hired you.
Thank the parents who entrusted their children to you.
Thank the students who sat in your classrooms, who played on your fields, acted on your stages, made music in your rehearsal spaces, deliberated in your student councils and mock trials and Model UNs.
Thank your colleagues, those with whom you have journeyed this year, for their guidance, support, and love.
Finally, and critically, thank yourself.
Give yourself credit for all you have done, for the long work you have begun, for the way you have influenced your students, for the gift you have been to them. Thank yourself for getting near the finish line, for perseverance, for faith. Thank yourself for each time you went on when you thought you could not, for each step you took when you were exhausted, for each time you went the extra mile or five or ten. Thank yourself for being part of this vocation, this incredibly important work.
Bottom line at this busy time of year: if you can only steal a moment to thank someone, to show your appreciation for one person on this list, make it yourself.
You deserve it. Know that in your heart. Feel it in your soul. Repeat it in your head.
You.
Deserve.
Thanks.
Give it to yourself, please.