Missing Person Update
A few of my friends from around town, the gym and my PLN have jokingly sent me Missing Person Ads lately, asked or wondered, “Where have you been?” Sorry, I was under an umbrella and had a lot of hats on, I’ve been flying under the radar, hiding and a little bogged down.
I find myself on a plane just as I was the last time I sat and wrote a post. Finding the time for things like blogging seems to be quite a challenge for me lately, albeit one I haven’t really made much effort to work through. It is rare to find a moment to sit and just do something I enjoy doing and as I was sitting here a few hundred or thousand feet up in the air trapped in a small space I was working on some things for school and decided to put those away, take a nap and then write this post just to give a quick little update on life and new chapters that have begun.
If you have followed my blog in the past you know that I am a new leader and I was a wearer of many hats as a classroom teacher and admin. As the summer came to an end some interesting things unfolded and the opportunity came for me to pack up my belongings and trade in my old hats for new hats and pick up an umbrella at the same time. My hats like teacher and instructional leader are still on but now it’s under the full time umbrella of Principal and in a new environment. Under the umbrella is who I really am and always was with all my hats on and some hats are different, some are shiny and new, some were someone else’s that I’ve inherited, some I don’t want and some I love, and outside the weather is different now.
I chose my #OneWord for 2017 earlier this year and it was Awaken (you can see my previous blog post about that if you haven’t read it). What I had envisioned for my #OneWord when I came up with it back in January has definitely turned out to look very different as the year played out. I find myself reflecting often and it is now the end of October. My “Awaken” year didn’t end up including book writing, planning my wedding, or taking my show on the road. It did include things like becoming the Lead Learner of a school and connected with many educators across the world in growing PLN though. Becoming a Lead Learner at my new school caused many other things to take a back seat, priorities have had to shift, and my life has changed a lot.
As I am now a ⅓ of the way into the school year in my new role and in my new environment though one thing has become very apparent to me recently, that it is time to put my umbrella down and weather any storm with my just hats on because it’s who I really am, what I know (and know to be best for kids), and most especially because I can’t see the sky; can’t see the sun peeking out or the rainbow in the distance at the end of any of the storms in my immediate area. I need to get back to my roots and do the things I know to be right, enjoy and be my best version of me. So, I promise to practice what I preach on Balance (if you haven’t read that blog post either, check that one out - it was one of my favorite things I’ve ever written), stay true to me, REAWAKEN before 2017 ends and get back to writing especially. After all, at the end of every storm is rainbow; it can’t rain forever; and it’s not about weathering the storm but about learning to dance in the rain.
I am looking forward to sharing more about my journey and the things that matter to me going forward and connecting with more of you either initially or more deeply. So, if we aren’t already connected find me on Twitter, Instagram or Voxer (@MrCoachEli) and we are already connected, say hello - it’ll be good to hear from you!
