Take a Walk and Get Unplugged

“Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem.”- Virginia Satir

While I was on the cruise, I gave myself a new life goal. My goal now is to unplug more frequently, and become more unplugged. I realized that I allow myself to be too connected to work. As a teacher, I want to be able to support my students and their families, but I am only one man. I believe in being accessible, but I realize that boundaries are more important than ever. I have to set myself up to make sure I am not on the job 24/7. I realized while on vacation during spring break that it is not my job to be on call everyday like customer service for a cell provider. I am only required to work during the hours of 8:40 – 4:40. Everything else that I do is extra. When I plan lessons at home during the evenings and weekends, I am doing that on my own time, not during the school year. Next school year, I will not have any school related applications on my cell phone any more. I do not see the need to be connected to work at that level. I will set aside times during the day in order to check for texts and messages that are work related. I didn’t want to do it right away, I figured this would be a good change for next year.

Last summer, we went camping near Bryson City, North Carolina. It’s a small town located inside the North Carolina mountains. On our last day there, my family decided they wanted to just rest at the campground, so I decided to take a walk down the road to check out some of the sights there. The views from the side of the road were amazing. These photos capture some of what I saw during that walk.