Events in my life have recently reminded me how long I’ve been at this.
I started in adult education with a volunteer gig in 2008, which became a part time job, and then a career.
All together, it means, I’ve been teaching for just about 10 years, and involved in adult ed for 12. Plus the years of higher ed before that.
Sometimes, this makes me feel old.
Sometimes it just feels unreal.
Sometimes, it makes me feel super grateful.
Mostly, lately, I’ve been feeling the gratitude. Because I’m far enough in to have learned some lessons and gained some perspective and be able to see the benefits of both.
Three reasons I’m loving in this stage:
My network: My version of hell looks something like a cocktail party. I’m an introvert, and until recently, I would tell you I’m terrible at networking because I’m terrible at the work a room cocktail party kind of networking. But when you do good work and help people and build real relationships for a dozen years, it turns out you have a pretty good network. I’ll be honest, my mind is still a little bit blown to realize this is true.
Compounding interest: To take one example… It’s not a big deal for me to make and do my spiral reviews now, because one year I scanned all of my materials to google drive; and another year, I worked out the classroom routines; and another year I made the template. It’s daunting imagining doing that all at once, but step by step, year by year improvements add up.
Go-to activities: I had to pivot a lesson this week. I like quick pivots on only slightly better than cocktail parties, but they are sometimes a fact of life. Fortunately, I had a mental list of tried and true go-to activities that I could plug my content into and move forward without a lot of fuss. I definitely did not have that when I was starting out Feeling confident that I have tools I can count on makes those things So. Much. Easier.
