What do you mean I have to go back to work!

This week sees me step back into my school and classroom. It will have been seven months since I last taught my kids, and about six months since I’ve actually had to work. It wasn’t that I had applied for leave to have wonderful adventures holidaying around the place. I was granted special leave due to the pandemic for my Husband’s illness with numerous hospital admissions and various medical appointments. After such a long leave of absence I’m anxious and nervous and excited about my return.

Nothing yet everything has changed within my work space. There has been some minor policy and procedural changes happen but, when you aren’t there for those changes, then those changes seem a lot bigger. I know I will get the hang of them but I guess change of any kind is like that, scary and unsettling . As much as we don’t always want to admit it, we are all creatures of habit. If you watch enough of nature it has its own rhythms and patterns which is its routine. When it is interrupted or changed then it too requires a period of adjustment. This shows if it flourishes and thrives or slowly wilts, stagnates or dies. I really hope that I am not the latter but the former.

What I am looking forward to is all the new crazy ideas I have had brewing in my head. How did I end up with so many ideas? Well, I was able to give them oxygen and fuel to go from a tiny spark to full fledge fire in my brain. I never thought I would say this but I have actually missed all my kids. Their strange little quirks and way of looking at life. I have one kid who I call my Rainman cross Sheldon Cooper. Let’s just say he’s challenging but also so rewarding to work with. He’s a fantastic reminder of how awesome kids truly are.

I have already started to plan what I will wear and what I will be packing myself for lunch. Silly I know, but as the old saying goes if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. So I move the anxiety and fear out of my head and focus on my new ideas, seeing all my kids again and making sure I have a plan A, plan B and plan C and something to eat that I enjoy for lunch.