Ten Days, Ten Things No.8

School and Work.

My work is in a school. As an elementary school principal, I'm an educator and a leader. I enjoy the work that I do. Even in 2020, I enjoy the work that I do. It should be noted that I really enjoy the people that I am able to work with. Those two things are absolutely related.

Like most professions (and things), work has been different. It has been really weird, and it has been really hard. Fortunately, I am surrounded by exceptional colleagues and co-workers.

Our resilience has been pushed to the max. We've had to test our patience, our perspective, and our purpose. Although no one's fault, the lack of answers and direction is at times maddening; the plethora of new tools, platforms, and methods to learn is exhausting. The past nine months have been extremely uncomfortable. Yet, we're still here. Through the discomfort we are able to optimize our learning and our growth, and I am confident that as a result of this experience we will be stronger and better than we ever were before.

This is the eighth of ten days where I'm going to share one positive experience that I've had over the course of the year (2020). This year has been hard, no doubt, but it hasn't all been gloom and doom. There have been highlights. And when you are looking for positives, you start to find more of them.

Ten Days, Ten Things No.7

Travel?

Traveling with my family is one of the things that I love the most. When I first started brainstorming this list of things, travel was going to qualify only for the potential of a big trip being on the horizon in 2021. Upon further review, we've been able to travel in 2020. In a year when we've been living through a global pandemic, we've been able to travel. 

Last January, we spent a long weekend in Florida visiting family and going to Universal Studios. That seems like such a long time ago; a lifetime ago. Then, over spring break, we took another trip to visit my brother in Seattle. Unfortunately, we ended up being pretty limited in regards to what we could do while we were there as COVID concern amplified at a rapid rate.

We managed trips to both Florida and Seattle in 2020. That's both coasts. We're blessed; I'm aware, and I'm thankful.

*Bonus: we also took trips to Decorah where we spent time hiking, canoeing, and biking, and Des Moines for my son's baseball team's state tournament.

This is the seventh of ten days where I'm going to share one positive experience that I've had over the course of the year (2020). This year has been hard, no doubt, but it hasn't all been gloom and doom. There have been highlights. And when you are looking for positives, you start to find more of them.

Ten Days, Ten Things No.6

Running.

Last year, I ran a marathon. This year, I had planned to run another marathon. I started the training plan, but had a hard time following the prescribed runs. So it was probably just as well that the marathon that I had planned to run ended up being cancelled.

Despite this, running has been one of my highlights of the year. Going into the year, I had a goal to run 2020 kilometers in 2020. That equates to running 1,255 miles. With only a few days left, this year, I have far exceeded that goal. I will end-up having run over 1,600 miles in 2020. This is the most that I've ever run.

I love running. I love the way that it makes me feel both physically and mentally. And despite so many things being cancelled, this year, running hasn't been one of them. Many races may have been cancelled, but running was not.

This is the sixth of ten days where I'm going to share one positive experience that I've had over the course of the year (2020). This year has been hard, no doubt, but it hasn't all been gloom and doom. There have been highlights. And when you are looking for positives, you start to find more of them.