My husband and I just returned from some time away in the British Virgin Islands and I just finished one of my favorite parts of our travels together, journaling about the trip. Today marks my husband and I’s one year anniversary and for almost every trip that we have taken together, I journal about them in one specific journal.
I appreciate reflecting on the experiences and it almost serves as a log of the awesome times that we’ve spent together. Then as we begin each new trip, we reread through some of the entries and laugh a little or get to enjoy some of the things that may have been temporarily forgotten.
Sure the timing may have been appropriate to call this a mini-celebratory-anniversary trip, but let me be clear, the reason we went on this trip is because my husband worked his butt off over the last year to earn this trip for the two of us.
You see, his CEO and his company provide opportunities for growth and success. They have also created a culture within the company that values hard work and rewards effort.
As we began this trip by rereading through some of the entries in our travel journal, a few things stuck out to me.
The first, was from a similar trip that my husband earned 2 years ago when we traveled to Costa Rica. It was another adventurous trip with details of zip lining, meals prepared from the fish that they caught themselves, and time spent with lovely people.
But at the end of one of the days when I was journaling about the meal that we had, I included a line about sharing my idea of Indi-ED with people who didn’t know me for the first time. “Shared the idea and it went over extremely well.” I had almost forgotten about that small detail. The first time that I shared the idea with educated, caring, and successful people other than my student’s families-and they supported and understood. Green light, keep going.
Flash forward to 1 year later and my husband earned the trip again but this time we didn’t go because we had already planned our wedding and our honeymoon for around that same time. I was rereading my notes from our honeymoon to Napa & San Francisco and on the first page I wrote, “Holy S?#@! I just interviewed for a TED talk!” I did it and now I know that hundreds of other people get it too. Another green light, keep going.
Now here we are in 2016, in April again for this trip in the BVIs and I found myself writing, “More happy tears. I just enrolled another student.” Now not only are people getting it, but they want it. Green light, keep going.
You guys, there are plenty of other “green light moments” in this journey for me but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you how awe-struck and appreciative I am that they keep appearing.
I’m sure if you speak with my husband’s CEO yourself, you’ll find many more intricate details that he’s intentionally implemented that make his company and his employees successful.
But as I look forward to next year with the understanding that I too will have the opportunity to intentionally design a culture and a plan for the success of both my students and my employees alike, these trips and this journal (and of course my husband’s love and encouragement) have allowed me to reflect on my own actions and progress and has allowed me to see some things more clearly.
The most obvious, how our teachers are treated in our traditional schools will be NOTHING like how Indi-ED teachers will be treated. (This will require an entirely different post to justly elaborate on.)
I look forward to showing appreciation to my supporters, my employees, my students, and their families who have all given me the “green light”.
Your time and hard work will be respected. You will have opportunities to succeed and grow. You will even be encouraged to enjoy this thing called life.
I may be a ways off from taking a large group to the BVIs, but who’s to say it won’t happen?
I can’t wait to see what I journal about this time next year!
