These Things I've Learned...

These Things I’ve Learned...

One month ago yesterday, I unknowingly buckled up on a roller coaster the likes of which I had never imagined. As a teacher/learner, I can’t help but reflect on the many things I learned throughout the process. 

1.  Always take your school picture (or really any picture, I suppose) seriously. You absolutely never know when it will be plastered across every form of social media and national television. A sidenote to this is that it IS actually possible to grow tired of the sight of your own face. :) And if I grew weary of it, I can only imagine everyone else, haha!

2.  Roots. Just keep them colored at all times. Related to #1, you simply never know when you will be catapulted into the limelight and YOUR hairdresser may not be nearly as willing or generous as mine was to miraculously squeeze you into a 30 min slot the day before a film crew comes to your school.

3.  Be happy for people. I’ll never forget the day of the first announcement, a good friend of mine said to me, “I honestly think I am as excited as I would be if it were me! I am absolutely GIDDY!” It’s just so much more fun to be happy with people, to take the ride alongside them, to share in the joy. Without going into detail, I did have a major counter-example of this and I think that relationship has probably taught me more than anything else could have. When you’re petty and bitter and just plain MEAN, it only makes you look horrible to everyone else. One day things on the one front with that person were really horrible and we had church that night. Emma and Kelsey were with me when people just swarmed me, so excited and hugging and wanting details and expressing such joy. It provided such an incredible teaching opportunity for the girls because, as we left, I pointed out the difference in the two moments of that day. I asked them who they thought felt better right then, the people who were rejoicing WITH me or the one who was resentful OF me. Bitterness will tear you apart inside. It eats you up, it’s your constant companion, it’s that itchy feeling in your chest and the weight in your heart. Get swept up in the good things that happen to others. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where you end and they start!

4.  Just lose the weight now. Don’t put it off until it’s more convenient or life slows down or you feel like it. Those things actually never happen. But do you know what CAN happen in two weeks? You can go from the front of a classroom to the studio of the top morning show, viewed by millions on national television. Do you know what CAN’T happen in two weeks? Weight loss. Just do it now.

However.....

5.  Your weight? It totally doesn’t matter at all. I have never been one to put much stock into physical appearance. (My mom can tell you how many times she cringes at the wrinkles in my clothes and offers gently to, “iron your stuff if you want to bring it to me”.) That being said, the weight gain that has come with age (and the gray hair) is a constant irritation to me, something I probably struggle more with in my heart than I ever let on or ever would show. I do feel insecure about it and I do look at myself and wish things were different. But when I look at pictures and videos from the show, I don’t see my size at all. I see pure, unadulterated EXCITEMENT AND JOY. I see a person who is experiencing things that she never imagined or deserved. I see someone who is being blessed in ways she never thought possible. I see someone whose most unattainable dream, a trip to Israel, is being granted not once but TWICE in the upcoming year. I see a person so incredibly fulfilled by her lifework, her calling, and the people in her life. I see the girl who never planned to be a teacher but would never want to do another job. I see someone who has read more notes and cards and facebook posts and messages and texts and tweets and articles of support in two weeks than in her entire life and guess what none of them referenced? Dress size. It simply does not matter one WHIT. You are the love you show to others, the energy you put into living, the effort you give your job, the call you answer daily... you are NOT your weight. 

6.  Express yourself. I try really hard to always tell people how I feel, that I am proud of them, that I love them, etc. However, I know there are many times I fail and the people in my life don’t know that just having them in my life makes my heart do backflips. I never thought I was a person whose love language was words of affirmation. In fact, I have often said that I don’t need compliments or praise at all. The ways in which my very soul lapped up the words given to me by the people in my life, sucked them down as if it was dying in a desert, showed me that apparently everyone enjoys words of affirmation. The human spirit needs to hear that sometimes. I need to be more conscientious of being the one to offer that to others.

7.  If I ever need to reinvent myself or impress people-- MAKEUP. I promise, I think I heard more commentary on the makeup they put on my face for that show than I have about legitimate social issues plaguing our world. I have decided there is nothing we Americans like more than a good made up face. Even Hamlet knew the score--“God gives you one face and you make yourselves another”.

 8.  KNOW yourself. I have been asked two questions over and over and over in the past month. 1. Why did I become a teacher? 2. Why do I teach the Holocaust? Thankfully, I had a ready answer for both. I do spend a lot of time self-reflecting and I guess it pays off. I also have been able to gain something of a platform and an audience through all of this that I hope will also lead to awareness and interest in the two organizations dearest to my heart, Royal Family Kids (ministry through summer camp and fall retreat that my church does for kids and middle schoolers in foster care) and People for Care and Learning (specifically their orphanages and Build a City projects in Cambodia). 

9.  That God of mine-- He ROCKS. I can’t even start to detail all of the ways He has orchestrated the tiny pieces of this story. Let me just say that His Hand was present in this event long before it became an actual event, before Kelly put hand to paper, before Kelly and Michael became co-hosts. 

10.   Social media is POWERFUL. And the people in my circle are utterly amazing. I have seen twice this school year the way that social media provides the vehicle and people provide the support network. I was overwhelmed in August when Grandmother had her stroke at the people who reached out to our family, many of them from far away and whom I had not talked to in years, often via social media. I was overwhelmed again this month at the people who shared the link, posted about it, had family members voting and posting, etc. For someone in a town the size of Cleveland to make it to the Top 5 in an ONLINE VOTING CONTEST is absolutely miraculous. But Cleveland, while it may be a small town, has a giant heart and arms that reach an awfully long way. They don’t call us the “City with Spirit” for nothing! :)

***This is not exactly something I learned, but it is worth noting. This 2013-2014 school year? It was HARD. It was probably the most difficult I have experienced in a very long time. I think part of the difficulty stemmed from the fact that Grandmother had the stroke in August, right at the beginning of school, and so we were dealing with the aftermath of that event for the rest of the year. I know that I was personally distracted and anxious, which I am certain affected my school being. But it just makes me smile to think back on this year because it started out so high, with the induction into the CHS Alumni Hall of Fame, plummeted rather quickly with some unexpected scheduling situations and a difficult semester, then basically settled into a roller coaster pattern for the remainder of the school year. There were some incredible days when I hated the thought of only doing this for 17 more years. There were some really challenging days when I wasn’t certain I had it in me to return the following day. And then there was the end, complete with its crazy highs and blurs of surrealism and joie de vivre. I am so grateful that God allowed me to end on this note. I wouldn’t trade one second of the process, including the very end. I am just so incredibly blessed.