Your best self…
Consider when you have been at your best. What was happening? What were you doing? Who were you with? How did it feel to be your best self?
I feel at my “best” when I’m in a classroom teaching. I don’t know that there’s been any particular moment I’m recalling, just a ton of small fragments of all the classes I’ve taught, all the teachers I’ve worked with, and most importantly, all the children I’ve had the opportunity to teach.
When I’m in the flow of these times, I feel like I’m having a positive influence on the lives of other people.
And while there are the lessons to be taught in the various subject areas, whether it be science, math, or any other courses of study, I feel the real reason I’m in my chosen profession twelve years after my “retirement” is because I have that positive influence on their lives and they on mine.
When I’m teaching, I feel wanted and needed and am important to others, which I consider a basic desire of all human beings, regardless of what part of their lives we’re considering.
I don’t feel like this way of feeling is always easily accessible, which in part is what I’m still at it after all these years.
- Author’s note – With an assignment already in place for the first eight weeks of the 2022-2023 school year, I will be starting my forty-second year as a classroom teacher.
David Lee 