A couple of weeks back, I woke up on Tuesday and my voice felt a little scratchy. I wasn't running a fever, didn't have a cough, and was generally feeling okay. Because of wearing a mask and social distancing, I haven't been sick in nearly two years, so I was a little surprised that I was under the weather. Naturally, my mind raced about what would happen if I had COVID, but that fear went away pretty quickly when my home test came back negative. Still, something wasn't right, so I went to the doctor to get a COVID test, strep test, and flu test. I figured I would just rule out all the biggies and only have to sit through the pain and agony one time of having a nurse jam a swab up my nose to the point it touched my brain. The result of all of this? I was negative on everything. It was pretty anticlimactic to find out that I just had a regular old cold. I'll admit that I am a little bit of a baby when I get sick. I'm on edge, I mumble and groan, and I am not a very good patient to anyone that tries to take care of me. I am positive that my lovely bride could give you a rundown of what not to do when I am sick and she would be able to produce a lot of great adjectives to describe me when I fall ill. The bottom line is that after a couple of days, I get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Being sick and tired of being sick and tired is a great way to sum up the last two years of being a professional educator. While it hasn't all been bad, there certainly have been limits that were tested, lines that were crossed, and an overwhelming sentiment that no one truly can appreciate the work that is done in schools on a daily basis if they haven't experienced it themselves. Sure, everyone has had their own personal experience of going to school, but that is different from actually working in a school on a day in and day out basis. It's a grind filled with workplace politics, red tape, strong personalities, and a little bit of drama. While some might argue that this sounds a lot like their own high school experience, it is, but it isn't. In this scenario, it's adults who are wrestling with these issues and everyone is sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The good news is that just like my cold, there is relief if you are willing to take the medicine. In the case of my cold, I took time off work begrudgingly, NyQuil, Tylenol Severe Cold & Flu, Benadryl, sinus washes, and did a lot of sleeping. I made the choice to do the necessary things to get me over the cold so it didn't exacerbate. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I decided to do something about it. I took control of what I could control and decided to take care of myself in an effort to speed up the recovery time. The same can happen for anyone else who is sick and tired of being sick and tired. We can choose to mope around feeling sorry for ourselves, wallow in our own self-misery, and blame others for why we are feeling the way we are feeling or we can take the reins and control what is within our scope of control and get better.
Being a sick and tired educator is a symptom of a larger issue. We have to decide if we are sick and tired because of what is going on around us or if it is because of something we are doing to ourselves. We can't control the former, but we certainly have the choice of changing the latter. When we make an intentional effort to change the way we look at things and how they impact us, we have the power to control our own narratives. It doesn't make those things go away, but it certainly allows us to take ownership of what we can control rather than let it beat us down. We each get to choose how we are going to remedy our own situations so that we can get back to feeling better, but we have to be willing to take the medicine. Maybe if we each decide to do this, we can take out one of the variables in the equation and just be tired of being tired.
#OwnYourEpic #Connect
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