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| #121 running with the CanTeen New Zealand team in the Auckland Round the Bays, March 2014, 5 months after major surgery |
As a teacher for nearly 16 years, I've been very lucky and spoiled with the gifts I've received. All the usual suspects of chocolates, wine, bunches of spring flowers, art work from students through to the more unusual ones which have included a beautiful painting created by a colleague and given to me when I left a previous school and, at the same time, a voucher for shoes! (They know my weaknesses!) I've loved and appreciated every single item.
Although incredibly special, there is one 'gift' that stands out among all of them and might be a little unexpected. It's the gift of health and being well enough to return to what I love. No matter the times I've thought that maybe there is something else I'm supposed to do in this life, I always seem to be drawn back to what I love the most - learning, teaching and all the wonderful people that make up this sometimes crazy profession of ours.
A year ago, a health crisis found me wondering whether this would spell the end of a career I love and, for quite some time, it certainly looked that way, from the diagnosis through to fighting to renew my Teacher's Practicing Certificate. I'd fought so hard to get this certificate in the first place nearly 16 years ago that the possibility of losing it due to ill health, even though I'd fully recovered, was an enormous wake-up call!
To cut a long story short I am now able to return to what I love, convinced the Teachers Council that I was more than fit and healthy and, best of all, I get a second chance at this wonderful profession of ours. I appreciate this gift because I so nearly lost the ability to choose to return. I know that I will never take this for granted again.
#reflectiveteacher #edchat #edblognz
beautiful post, beautiful person!
ReplyDeleteThank you Beth :-)
DeleteAs you say, we work so hard to achieve our practicing certificates and then to maintain them. They are precious. I am so glad you have managed to maintain yours.
ReplyDeleteSo am I. It was very frustrating. If I'd had cancer it wouldn't have been an issue but a benign brain tumour seems to change everything, even though I'm even better than I was before.
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