Dearest readers,
This will be the last missive of the year and I wish you and yours a very happy, joyful and restful holiday break. It is well-deserved, amirite?
I also want to thank you sincerely for welcoming me into your overstuffed inbox every week. It is an honor and privilege to share my thoughts with you every week and I feel so lucky to be able to call you one of my tribe.
Though I’m usually situated in the wilds of downtown Brooklyn, I’ve taken off to sunny California for the winter to teach at my old high school for the winter semester. I have a small class of five high school sophomores and juniors in my Social Entrepreneurship class and it has been a hoot.
Being back at my old high school has stirred up lots of old memories and–dare I say–traumas? Like, wandering around the cafeteria and wondering who to sit with. Or spending time thinking about whether my students will think I’m cool or not. Or worrying about making friends with the faculty.
Shows you that you can take the girl out of high school, but you can’t take high school out of the girl.
I feel like the teenage dork that I was once. It’s very hard to fight the urge to announce, “I’m kind of a big deal in BROOKLYN.”
Mostly, it’s been interesting to observe all of the feelings that get stirred up in me and to observe my students and their anxieties.
I was giving my students their daily graded reading quizzes and one sophomore girl took a look at her grade, groaned and said, “If I get a B in this class, my entire college career will be ruined.”
Melodrama is alive and well, friends.
It made me think about all of the mind drama that we create for ourselves. We’re so inventive at creating reasons, rationales and dramas for ourselves that only exist in our own minds.
Whether it’s the fear of rejection, the fear of not belonging, the fear of failure, it’s the fear that often pushes us from behind more than the inspiration pulls us forward.
When we are pushed by fear, we operate from a sense of scarcity and anxiety. We work too hard, we white-knuckle our way through our days, we create pressure for ourselves and everyone around us.
So, as we head into 2023, I’m going to be thinking about creating a vision that pulls me forward instead of letting the anxiety of fear push me.
What’s calling you forward in 2023?
