There are times in life when you break free. Sometimes these are highly orchestrated events and other times they are simply part of our expected course in life. Transition from one school to another as a child were moments of breaking free. I remember the freedom I felt during my first days in elementary school as I essentially broke free from being at home with my family most of the time. Later I felt a sense of freedom as I moved from elementary school to junior high and then to high school, college, my first apartment, first good job, and graduate school. There was freedom too when I moved from an apartment to my home, from teaching one grade to another, and moving schools as a teacher too. Most changes in my life came with a sense of freedom, and that made those changes welcome and exciting.
I'm feeling the same way about the change from teaching full-time to having more time at home. I really enjoyed most aspects of my career as an educator, but there were definitely some oppressive factors too--factors I fought against, but was never truly able to overcome. The greatest of these was the freedom to have more voice about how schools were run and the supports I needed to do the best possible job. It seemed like it was always a struggle to get what I needed to meet the vision I had for schools and teaching. I kept pushing ahead throughout my 34-year career, and did make some headway with regard to change, but the final fight to lead more during COVID-19 was one fight too many for me, and I knew it was time to break free. I knew that fight was more than I could handle primarily for health reasons and secondarily because the decisions made were in opposition to the vision I had for safe, effective teaching and learning during a pandemic. That said, I know it's not an easy problem to solve.
So I'm breaking free again, and what does this mean. First, in a sense, it is a luxury to have this time and freedom to choose how I will spend my days, and as with all freedom, there is responsibility too since I don't want to waste this time, but instead use it wisely to meet some significant challenges and carve new paths in life. I need to spend a little time crafting a vision for my days ahead as this change was unexpected at this time. For most other changes in my life, the vision was already set. Years before I became a teacher, I was planning, writing about, and practicing that craft--I was ready for that change.
A strong vision is integral to any good change and any opportunity to break free--today I'll work on that vision which will create the wind at my back as I sail forward in the days ahead. Onward.