It has been a very long month off from coaching. It didn’t matter how many workouts I wrote (I have the first 3 weeks completed and the next 12 weeks sketched out!) or any other preparations, working with kids is what brings me joy, not the associated paperwork.
I realize the kids needed the month off, but I was ready to be back on deck two weeks ago. At the same time, my other job felt like the proverbial anchor, drowning me in misery. I wanted to quit so badly. Bless my poor boss for putting up with my moping!
Last night was workout #1 for the 2018-19 season. Joy! Rapture! Blessed relief! Interestingly, I discovered a side effect of returning to the job for which I am designed: my desk job doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Yesterday, as I anticipated that glorious combination of kids and chlorine, I found myself able to write about parking lots in Tacoma without my mind drifting to brainless ether (if you work a boring desk job, you know exactly what I’m talking about).
Of course, there were challenges last night: just like the first day of school, kids have clearly forgotten the basics we’d worked so hard to correct last spring. We were only halfway through the main set before throwing it out because most kids had obliterated the memory of how to properly pushoff from their consciousness. LOL!
That, however, is part of the joy of teaching or coaching. If you can’t roll with the punches, don’t work with kids. Heck, if you can’t find joy watching a kid recall how to do a proper pushoff (or any other skill they’ve forgotten after only one month), you’re in the wrong business. Amazing how such a simple thing can bring such satisfaction…or make this morning’s scratchy throat a lot less irritating!
Piece of Mind 