Those who surround you...

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
Leo Buscaglia

It is essential to find balance in anything you do. With teaching, we are often isolated for 5-6 hours from other adults, shovel down lunch in 20 minutes, and work long after the school day has ended. However, despite being isolated much of the day, it is so important to have people at work that support you, listen to you, and can guide you. For some reason, it was an especially trying time this week at school. This time, I was on the down side of the roller coaster. At some moments, I questioned if I was even supposed to be a teacher. Did I follow the wrong path? I always try to optimistic when it comes to teaching- so much can get us down- but it was very difficult this week.

I have fellow teachers and most of our classrooms either connect or are very close together. Each morning or during our planning time, we ended up sitting on the desks, just talking. Not doing work or plans (despite conferences coming up!), just talking. I found that they, too, were having an especially hard week. Although I did not want my colleagues to have a hard week, it was a relief that I was not crazy, and that yes, I chose the right path, it was just a hard week. We decided it was time for a girls' night in. At the end of the week, we went to one house, made homemade pizza, salad, and enjoyed fine wine and fine conversation. We laughed, cried, connected, and just had a great time.

What I knew before, but realized through our night of laughter and fun, was how important a role these colleagues played in my sanity through that difficult week. They are not colleagues, but friends. Having someone there for you at work is the single most important requirement. If you do not have others at your place of work that you can count on or complain to, I urge you to try to find someone. It will change everything when those hard days do come along.