Perfici

This last week was hard.  Really tiring and debilitatingly draining hard.  But I achieved a lot and I learned a lot from it.

Last week held the last day of the school year for my kids.  It was hectic, stressfull, and sad to say goodbye to the kids I knew wouldn’t be coming back next year.  But it also made my day.  A bunch of students brought in presents for me and the other teachers as thank you gifts for the end of the year.  I recieved hand drawn pictures from the kids (my favorite was a hand made paper “card” that when you opened it said “From Olivia” on one side and “I love you” on the other with pictures of hearts.)  I also recieved a myriad of gift cards, tidbits, a potted begonia plant, a chocolate and oreo crumb covered apple, and some cards, one which had possibly the nicest thing ever written about me on it: “Miss Cyndi – You have a wonderful heart and spirit that shines in all that you do.  Thank you for your energy and joy – you brighten our days!”  Now, I would have still thought this was great coming from a family that I had seen all year and interacted a lot with.  But I’ve only been there a few months, and while I’ve worked with the daughter a lot, I’ve only seen her mom for about 45 seconds in the mornings of the last few weeks of school, when I helped kids get out of the cars and into school.  So for a woman that I just met and barely see to write that card to me was really amazing to me.  And I learned that while this school year has been freakishly difficult in so many ways, I am appreciated.  I make a difference.  I am loved.

Last week on Thursday evening I discovered that the final I thought was due much later was actually due on Friday night.  In true me fashion, I had not started yet.  So I wrote the three page introduction to my topic and found a few sources that I could use for the next day in a couple of hours on Thursday night.  All day Friday at work I freaked out about it, since the final was due that night and I didn’t want to be up late, especially on this night – I had a dragonboat regatta the next day and had to be up at 5am!  I managed to sneak out of work a half hour early to get home and work on my final.  In about three hours (I took some breaks here and there, so there was 3 hours of actuall work spread out over 5 hours) I had 16 pages worth of material, and finished in time to watch the all new Doctor Who at 9.  Then I looked over my project again and sent it in.  Of course, who knows the grade I got on it (I’ll let you know when I find out), but what I learned once again is that I am capable of doing some really great things when I put my mind to it.  Because I’m lucky that even my half assed attempts at academic pursuits generally turn out looking somewhat wonderful.  So what I learned from this adventure is that I should stop freaking out when faced with a seemingly impossible deadline.  Cause I can do it.  I just need to actually get started and, well, do it. 

Last week I participated in the second annual Independence Dragonboat Regatta on the Schuylkill river.  Despite getting up at 4:45am to eventually discover that I had plenty of time and could have slept the extra 15 minutes, and the fact that it was a million and a half degrees outside, it was a fun day.  I was with some friends, there was food, shade, folding chairs, and a deck of cards.  Oh yeah, and a dragonboat regatta.  Last year our team’s best time for the 500 meter distance was 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and we finished 27th out of 29 teams.  This year we finished our final race in 2:39 to scoop up a bronze medal in our division, and we placed 19th out of 49 teams.  We were awesome.  But back to what I learned.  The day was stifflingly hot, I’d had not so much sleep, and the almost three minutes of each race was exhausting.  We raced three times, and with each run the entire team threw more and more of themselves into the race.  When our final race came, the race that decided if we would finally get a medal or go home with nothing, we all came to the same conclusion – you can do anything for three minutes.  Forget the pain, forget the exhaustion, hunger, and fact that you really have to pee.  Just paddle the shit out of that boat for three minutes.  And viola, there was our medal!  After being shafted last year by a lame categorizing system, it was finally ours!  From this day I learned that sometimes the things you want are really, really hard to get.  And sometimes you give up a little sooner than you could because it’s hard, and it hurts, and is it really worth all this trouble?  But if you just tell that little nagging voice in your head that says “quit” to shut the hell up, you can do anything.  For three minutes.

So last week was a tough one.  But it was a good one too.  I learned.  I grew.  I achieved.