With Everything, Be Deliberate

These past few weeks have gone by really fast. There was a week that my cooperating teacher was sick and I got the full experience of running an ag program followed by a week in which I only taught one day due to attending a conference, snow days, and a training at Penn State, and finally this past week in which I had to juggle preparing for and teaching classes with conducting research for my masters degree. Now with only four more weeks left of the student teaching experience it is surreal to think that after so much preparation and anticipation, I am closing in on the end of my pre-service training.

I have a lot on my mind at the moment and I want to write about many different things but I will focus on something that I feel that I have learned, and that I believe is valuable, not only to me, but perhaps to many others. I have learned that it is important to be where you are. What I mean by that is, where ever you are, whatever you are doing, make sure that you are conscious of your thoughts and deliberate in your actions. It is so easy to be distracted, especially from the very important and often times obvious things in life. I believe that that is why it is increasingly important to be deliberate in everything we do.

I was very anxious about being able balance work-life with the rest of my responsibilities, especially because "work-life" and everything else sometimes gets blended together in the life of an ag teacher. I was worried that I could not be a great ag teacher AND a great husband and father. It seems like it is always one or the other. But I have found that true balance comes from being purposeful in the way we conduct our lives. When I am at school, I am 100% at school. I am focused on what I need to do, I am aware of the needs of my students, and I am conscious of my responsibilities that I have as an educator. When I am at home, I leave my phone on the bookshelf and I try to do my best to be a great father even if that means playing "monster" when I really want to fall asleep on the couch.

People say all of the time that you have to "find a balance" and I used to believe that. Now, I'm not so sure that "balance" is something that you find, but instead, something that you create. It is a conscious decision as to what is important and how you are going to spend you life. At this point in my life, it is an active endeavor, meaning that it does not come naturally. My hope is that through this practice of living deliberately, that I will always be able to create a balance in my life that will lead to my own happiness and more happiness for those around me.