2019 brought proverbial big changes. Does any calendar year not? The year that ends today brought incredible learning and growing experiences with quite a few changes along the way. I supervised four overnight field trips including two to major US cities, one by plane and one by charter bus. I navigated district politics and left a school I loved and still love. I joined the faculty at a new school with a new role and adding a new subject to teach. I completed three graduate courses in my third post baccalaureate degree. I ran plenty of half marathons including one in a new state, Utah, and one in a new country, Switzerland. With Mom, I visited five more national parks, all in Utah. On my own, I spent about a month in Europe, visiting twelve countries, ten of them new to me. (See my travelogues for more detail.) I even moved again, to a house of my own, shared with a roommate. I know, even with that long paragraph, that I missed listing plenty of other important things. 2019 was a big year.
More important than the things I did, 2019 taught me a lot. First, as I have described in more detail in previous posts, the events of 2019 taught me where my passion in teaching truly lies and pushed me out of my comfort zone to get there. Facing the unethical behavior of a previous colleague and my former boss, I learned about the unfortunate reality of the politics of saving face at the district level but more importantly, I learned the location of my line and what I will do with my bag against the wall. As a consequence of this, my choice to leave, while definitely the correct choice to make, illuminated exactly what I love about the student population of my former school. My heart yearns to work with those that society deems defective in one way or another. This helps guide my future career choices.
Second, my month in Europe proved the cliched adage that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” For the first time since I started running a decade ago, I voluntarily, as in not induced by injury, went more than a week and a half without running. As I described before, on that trip, every time I saw a runner, a pang of longing went through me. When I returned to running, I brought with me a renewed sense of gratefulness which has jump started my commitment to the sport and perhaps may lead to finally reaching goals set years ago.
Third, the four overnight field trips I led showed me the immense relationship building value of these trips and just how life changing they can be. I discussed this more in depth before but upon further reflection, I realized just how much these trips fall into my wheelhouse, not field trips in general but the YIG and MUN trips specifically. These trips provide opportunity to engage with history, politics and current events in a way that helps build the self-confidence of students who, most of them at least, would never have even considered activities like that before.
Four, I learned how to disconnect from my money. Let me explain. I still track every penny that I earn and I that I spend. I still try to save as much money as I can while making sure to pay my bills and balance my budget. When I say disconnect, I mean hold loosely. I have not calculated how much money I spent on the above referenced field trips, on the students themselves; I have no desire to do so. I do not even need to. No, I freely spent on those kids, providing those opportunities realizing that I derive far more value from providing for others than hoarding the money in an account for my future self.
In conclusion, I had a pretty good 2019, a year full of change, new experiences, learning, and growing. With the new year beginning less than 24 hours from now, I do not foresee huge changes coming to my life in 2020. However, as the previous 34 years of my life have taught me, I have little in the way of predictive ability. INstead of attempting to predict and plan the year ahead, I approach 2020 with a growth mindset, ready to learn whatever God has in store for me in the coming year.