Dear New Years Resolutions,
It’s gonna be a hard pass for me this year, old friend. HARD pass. For a lot of reasons honestly.
1. I changed enough in 2020 for the next twenty years combined, so we’re all good here. I don't even know what my job title is anymore! I don't know what the new/old/new/different quarantine rules are because there are so many variables.
2. I don't really feel like this year (or last year) actually ended. It's like Groundhog Day except as a teacher who constantly explains how to login to the EXACT SAME PROGRAM THEY USED THE PAST YEAR. A new resolution just seems like something else to add to my already overflowing to-do list and I will be having absolute none of that nonsense in 2021. The only positive that came out of this past year is we got a sweet baby Everlee!
3. I bought a planner at the beginning of the last school year and always feel "put together" when I get my school calendar in it. It is now covered in white-out from the multiple calendar changes and I’m scarred from the entire ordeal. Probably going to use it to start a fire later.
4. Maybe life is better when we’re flexible. As a pandemic teacher, it's the one time I'm thankful I don't use a rigid schedule with hard deadlines as they would both be join the previously stated bonfire.
5. Yeah, I absolutely want to be healthier, but I don’t care about being thinner this year. I don’t care about being prettier or showing off or reversing the hands of aging. I’ve earned every single wrinkle (even the ones my Botox is losing the battle to).
6. Resolutions are meant to add rules to your life. So help me, if another rule/law/mandate gets added to my life I feel like I'll go full Rambo and that won't be good for anyone.
7. You usually don’t wake up and change overnight, and there really has never been any magic in January first. Growth comes from failing, failing again, persisting, gaining clarity, and going at it again. I want to embrace it all, and I want to learn to celebrate “the trying” every bit as much as I celebrate “the win.”
8. I have actually figured out a few things during 2020. I love traveling and was able to do so in Jan., June, and Dec. I learned to treasure these moments, regardless of the distance. I learned the people I made memories with needed it as much as I did. Those same people are the ones who had my back and helped Elmore Lane become such as huge hit.
9. I want to see the forest (big picture) and not get caught up in the trees (details).
10. Ummm I actually am exhausted from this year and have nothing else to say, but it seems like this list should go to 10, so.
*I gonna need all you wonderful teachers/school employees to scream JAMANJI at midnight just in case because the fact that a dinosaur could walk past my window and I wouldn't think anything of it is not ok!
Here’s to a year full of GRACE, PATIENCE, HOPE, and LOVE!
Love,
Elmore
(Aka Ashley Elmore, Mom, Sassy, babe, etc.)
(stolen and adapted from
Amy & Jess )