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Ending, Cleaning, and Organizing


Fourteen days left with the students. The school year is coming to an end. It's a time of wrapping up and closing and with that comes reflection. Thinking about where we started and how far we've come. The end of this year is different for me as I am packing up and leaving this school. This school where I discovered my true love...working with the middle school student.

It's time. It's the right time. I've been offered an opportunity to open a brand new middle school, which is a new opportunity for me. I have all of the feelings that go along with transitioning...anticipation, excitement, worry, sadness, loss, and wonder. My challenge right now is to stay present in the moment with the students. I find when I'm able to do that, I am able to grasp the most joy. 


Practically speaking, arrangements must be made to clean out years of memories and teaching, before I move. I've dreaded this, until last night when I heard a comment that stopped me in my tracks. 

Last night I attended a class about Bullet Journaling at this cool studio called Create N Take. I've journaled before, but I needed a refresher and wanted to hear some new ideas. It was a small group, there were only four of us. One of the women was saying something about the time it takes to create the layouts in the bullet journals and the teacher quietly replied, "It's self-care. You need to take the time to show yourself some self-care and by setting up these pages, that's one way to do it." 

I'd never thought of bullet journaling as self-care, but of course, it is! 

Cleaning and organizing is a form of self-care too. It's all in the perspective. I've been dreading cleaning and packing up, but now I find myself hearing those words and looking forward to showing myself some self-care. We all could use more of that! 



Thank you to Margaret for this linkup! 
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Comments

  1. Congratulations on your new position - we really need to catch up! Reading this makes me want to give my bullet journal another try...with a different lens - self-care. As you sort, clean, pack, and purge, may you also find many memories to take with you.

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  2. How exciting to be moving into a brand new school! We are building a new elementary school here in our district that will be opening fall of 2018. Not sure if I will apply to transfer, but there is a part of me that gets pretty excited at the thought of brand new classrooms and all the fun that will come with it.

    I am intrigued by bullet journaling... I am always making bulleted lists. The idea of it being self care was something I would not have considered, but it is obvious that there is a lot of hand work to them, right? I can really see where I would find comfort in this kind of a project. Any websites I could peruse to get me started?

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  3. Thanks for joining the DigiLitSunday link up today. What a great post! I am so excited for you and your new position. Change is good. It's also hard. I love that idea of self-care and how organizing can be part of it. I always dread the organization phase, but looking at it in this light, I may actually enjoy it. How is bullet journaling different from making a grocery list? I'd love to know more.

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  4. What an opportunity! What a find for this new school! Your bullet journal is beautiful. Makes me want to find a class to do this work. As Margaret and Dani said...I want to know more!

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  5. It is all about perspective. Choosing to end well is also about self care AND about modeling that for those around you (students and adults). Be kind to yourself in these days and moments.

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