100 Days of Wonder – #60
Today I want to pause to celebrate my students past and present. They’re all absolute stars. Yep that’s the link to the picture. Sorry. But actually there’s more of a link. I didn’t really ‘get’ the importance and value of celebrating success and being told you’re doing or have done a good job. I found the mostly American culture of ‘good job for existing’ level of praise and affirmation quite jarring and irritating the first time I really witnessed it properly during the first Disney trip in 2006. Yep well done, you are an adult and you managed breathe all day today. I thought it was all a bit pathetic really.
But of course that first Disney trip was before I had any genuine sense that just existing could be so fucking hard. I have u-turned on this. Give yourself and others all the praise, love and affirmation you can. Over the last 20 years I have seen over and over again the power that believing in someone can have, the power that saying ‘good job’ or ‘Well done’ can have and I remember so vividly the impact it had on me when life got hard. So you, yep you who struggled to get out of bed today – you’re awesome. And you who spent all day hiding and crying because life is shit right now, well done for getting through today. You who fought your bastard demons today – I see you and I’m proud of you. And for those of you who are happy today, those who had a great day and for whom things are really good. I am genuinely happy and excited for you. (I mean that genuinely but however I write this it always seems to sound sarcastic – not meant to)
So celebrating students. I have finished teaching for this semester and assessment season is upon us and somehow we are collectively making a mess of this in higher education . The anxiety we create is unreal! Assessment should not be this stressful! Sure, nerves are normal but wow society and the education system pile on the pressure. What are we doing? Assessment should be the celebration of learning. It should be a chance to show off the journey and demonstrate mastery of new knowledge and skills. Over the last couple of weeks I have read genuinely insightful work, watched brilliant presentations and had really deep and sometimes heartbreaking conversations. All my students are juggling life in ways that many of us in our privileged academic bubbles can barely imagine and yet they jump through our anxiety inducing hoops and come out fighting for a better world. I am so unbelievably proud of all of them. The kids are alright, you know and I’m never going to stop telling them that.
100 Days of Wonder – #52
Here’s the Bear of Little Brain. This was taken at Epcot in January 2023 as he was doing his morning exercises. We stood and watched him for ages and got the giggles watching him trying to reach his toes. My anxiety has been sky high today and I have felt very ‘little brained’. I probably could have done with channeling Winnie a little more. Or just the feeling of standing and watching him. In fact I don’t think any of us really take enough time to just stand and stare or watch or just be. It’s all about productivity and that just ends up being counter productive because my work world should be about creativity and thinking and empowerment and inspiring others and none of that works well if my tank is empty. Winnie started his day with some exercise and some waving at crowds and some being silly and just the memory of that starts resetting my system and bringing my heart rate and anxiety levels down. I finished my day today with a Boxercise class at the gym. It felt good – sometimes you just need to punch the crap out of something to release the excess adrenaline – and there were some giggles too over my lack of co-ordination. The fact that I nearly passed out at the end and had to sit on a chair off to one said that felt rather like the naughty chair, is also a reminder to look after myself better during the day. Maybe pause, have lunch, drink water, drink less coffee… I can’t imagine Winnie not having a little smackerel of something at regular intervals!
100 Days of Wonder – #40
What do you do to re-set? I am joining Piglet and the gang in the 100 Acre Wood. I know I should not be writing the story before all the characters are known or while we don’t know which of the unknowable number of worlds in the multiverse we will find ourselves in as things play out. But, as is perhaps normal for so many of us, I want to think through the infinite possibilities of everything that is going on so that I can be prepared. I was listening to the radio on my way back from campus today and there was a lot of speculation about the impact of the US election and I found myself wondering why that particular narrative and not a different one, why that ‘what if’ and not others. The same ‘what if’ narratives are playing out more locally in my world too and the different stories people tell themselves about what is happening can act as comfort blankets or as triggers for anxiety and stress. Over the last few days I have seen kindness and support where it really matters, I have seen bravery and people standing up for what’s right and I have seen many of us have each other’s back. I have seen other things too but I don’t want to engage with them right now. I want to believe in the good and I want to head off to the river where the gang was playing Poohsticks. I want to (if you’ll forgive the excursion to the more modern stories) play cricket with Eeyore. I want to be lectured by Owl, bounced by Tigger and I want to walk in the woods humming a silly tune with Piglet as we go check and see if Pooh has got thin enough to get unstuck from Rabbit’s house yet. This picture makes me believe I can do all that and as I have another random day off tomorrow, who is to say I can’t do exactly that. So if anyone is looking for me, I’m off to have tea with Kanga and Roo. The reality of our world will just have to wait a bit.
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