Things Are Getting Crucial Here…

Well, it’s another week gone by and with each day my freedom from school is diminished. That being said, I’ve not been able to actually have much free time this summer - we have a new SIS (school information system) and LMS (learning management system) being put in place; I am one of two administrators for this project and both of us are up to our ‘you know what’s’ with work.

Thankfully, my co-admin had the good sense to go on vacation for a little more than a week. This left me ‘on vacation’ working at least 5 hours a day on my ‘time off’. To add to the unintentional torture, my colleagues that are also teachers are full-time on vacation and send me pics from their various points of interest - baseball parks, bars, nature reserves, exotic meals, etc… of which I am good-naturedly jealous!

All this has led me to explore the idea that if I don’t really have a vacation blocked of this summer, maybe I need to have vacation time EVERY DAY! In other words, I need to make sure that I have time for myself and my personal interests every day; that I make that time ‘sacred’ and untouchable - no one can interrupt or keep me from this mini-vacation!

What does ‘vacation time’ look like? Is it watching TV? The answer is NO! To me, actually sitting in front or a television dedicated to watching a movie is a waste of time (although I do loves me some Mandalorian and an occasional check-in with ‘The Expanse’) but generally, I find I’ve got to be doing something while the TV (or computer) is on.

So, if watching TV does not fall into the category of ‘vacation time’, I am led to the thought - what would constitute activities from day to day that would refresh and reinvigorate my mind, body and spirit, ‘cause that’s what a vacation is supposed to do, right? Are we talking meditation? I’d say yes, for part of the ‘vacation’… Are we talking exercise? most definitely… Are we talking creativity? hmm, you might, rabbit, you might…. AND how much time are we talking about? 15 minutes - no, that’s too short… 30 minutes? let’s see - 15 minutes for meditation, 20 minutes for exercise…NOPE, NOPE that’s not enough! 60 minutes? - okay… 15 meditation, 20 minutes exercise and 25 minutes creativity… it’s getting better but the 25 minutes for creativity is a bit on the short side… two hours??? Wow! that, on first mention sounds very vacationy, let’s give that a run through - 15 minutes meditation, 20 minutes exercise, 60-85 minutes creativity, adjusted if the exercise requires a shower. That might just do the trick!

From the pro-vacation point of view, this seems like a good amount of time. During the summer, regardless of how much time I’d need to give to the SIS, LMS administration, this seems manageable. As far as what’s possible during the school year, I’ll have to see, I might have to get up extra early or stay up a little bit later than usual to cram two hours in of ‘me’ time, but for what I lose in sleep I might gain in the mind and soul department.

Before I go any further, let me tell you about an enemy of joy and inner-peace that has infiltrated into my life the last week or so. It is called YouTube and it’s evil brethren - Instagram, TikTok and MLB.com. During ‘down time’ on my summer days, I find myself mindlessly browsing YouTube for videos that will pump in that mini dose of endorphins that keep me glued to my computer screen - lately I’ve been watching episodes of ‘Hot Ones’ and videos from the ‘Dodo’ channel (good-natured, positive videos about animals). This mindless pursuit can easily eat up an hour or two before I check to see how much time I’ve actually used up. So you see, right then and there, my ‘vacation’ time has been used up with no real benefit to my mind, body and soul. Part of me says “you need this mindless time to recharge your batteries”. Yes, I agree to a certain extent, but if left unchecked, I could easily see myself responding when asked “what did you do this summer?” with the totally embarrassing comment “not much, I watched a lot of YouTube…duh…”

I guess what I’m saying is that even though the summer is for free time and mindless ‘fun’, in order to ensure that a reasonable amount of nourishing mind, body and soul time is spent on a daily basis, one must be somewhat disciplined. So here goes: for the rest of my summer I will make sure to do the following EVERY DAY: meditate for 15 minutes, exercise for 20 minutes (usually walking) and work on creative projects, usually music-related for the balance of that time. To quote Mr. Burns - “EXCELLENT!”

Now we have the question, do these activities need to be consecutive in one two-hour block or can they be spread out throughout the day? To that I will respond - I will shoot for 1)doing it as the first thing during the day, post-breakfast and 2) do it in one block. If there are events of the day that are unmovable such as doctor’s appointments, etc al… then I may have to spread these affairs wherever I can during the rest of the day. Again - first thing in the AM is the best case scenario.

Okay, so, yeah, I feel good about this and a little stupid that I wasted two weeks of my shortened vacation not doing this, but maybe, just maybe I did need to totally fart-out during my free time so that I’m primed to be disciplined and creative for the rest of my vacation.

I will check in with you all at the end of the summer and see how I feel and if I’m ready to go back to teaching/admining full time. I will use the questions I described in a previous blog post - “A Mid-Summer Check-in” to see how well this system worked.

Good luck y’all, stay healthy and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Cheers!