Today is the day you think about all summer. Either you are awaiting the return to school or hoping the date will magically get further away so your summer can be extended. It is the first day of school. I realized today as I was driving on the interstate this is the first year I haven't personally had a "back to school day" since I was three years old. When I was four I started preschool straight through until I was 17 and started my senior year I experienced the back to school day as a student. Starting when I was 18 and onward until I was 21 I experienced back to school day as a college student. When I was 22 I got my first teaching job and I taught in education and experienced back to school day as a school employee until I was 31.
When I started my tenth year in the school setting, at the age of 31, I had no idea it would be my last - first day of school. I think looking back maybe I would have celebrated it in someway. I might have done something differently. Maybe not though. It is hard to look back and you can't live in the past.
As a parent is how I experience back to school day now and it is much different from when I was going back myself. I will have to live through my son and his back to school experiences! This morning my husband dropped him off at school. Today Wylee was a "walker" for the first time. He is in 3rd grade and that marks a few changes at school. He wears a new color uniform and he can be a walker. He walks out to my car in the parking lot, but, he feels big because he gets to walk out. We got to talk all about his first day of school.
As I think about the fact that I won't have another first back to school day I think about a few other things. One thing in particular is how tied our identities are to our jobs are. When we lose our jobs, for whatever reason, it really changes who we are as a person.
Something to think about...
In October, my 10th year in the schools, I had to move to disability due to cancer treatments. It was a very dark time for me. I still experience bouts of depression related to not being able to work at the same level I did before. It was a loss of identity for me to stop working. I don't know if you realize how often someone is defined by what "they do" and not by who they are. You meet someone new, introduce yourself, and you ask what they do for a living. Try and pay attention to it, you will notice it. It happens quite frequently, I find myself still doing it. It is like a go to discussion starter. I try to change the way I talk to others when I meet them, but I still find myself returning back to that question.
How do you think we could greet other individuals which would not focus on identifying people by their career?
When I started my tenth year in the school setting, at the age of 31, I had no idea it would be my last - first day of school. I think looking back maybe I would have celebrated it in someway. I might have done something differently. Maybe not though. It is hard to look back and you can't live in the past.
As a parent is how I experience back to school day now and it is much different from when I was going back myself. I will have to live through my son and his back to school experiences! This morning my husband dropped him off at school. Today Wylee was a "walker" for the first time. He is in 3rd grade and that marks a few changes at school. He wears a new color uniform and he can be a walker. He walks out to my car in the parking lot, but, he feels big because he gets to walk out. We got to talk all about his first day of school.
As I think about the fact that I won't have another first back to school day I think about a few other things. One thing in particular is how tied our identities are to our jobs are. When we lose our jobs, for whatever reason, it really changes who we are as a person.
Something to think about...
In October, my 10th year in the schools, I had to move to disability due to cancer treatments. It was a very dark time for me. I still experience bouts of depression related to not being able to work at the same level I did before. It was a loss of identity for me to stop working. I don't know if you realize how often someone is defined by what "they do" and not by who they are. You meet someone new, introduce yourself, and you ask what they do for a living. Try and pay attention to it, you will notice it. It happens quite frequently, I find myself still doing it. It is like a go to discussion starter. I try to change the way I talk to others when I meet them, but I still find myself returning back to that question.
How do you think we could greet other individuals which would not focus on identifying people by their career?
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