Perseverance

This summer, I somehow caught pneumonia … and I still have it. It’s been downgraded from full-blown “Oh honey, I’m afraid you’re far more ill than you realize,” and a ridiculous amount of drugs to “Your lungs look better but maybe you need steroids.” My pride in my general good health has also been downgraded. I’d never been that sick before, and it came so suddenly that it threw me for a loop, not just physically but psychologically as well. Normally, I pack out my schedule with trips and projects and social outings, but I quickly found myself unable to keep up with a normal routine. Between summer and now, I've gotten much better, but still deal with the cough and tiredness. As all teachers know, it’s hard to keep up the pace and do your best for the young scholars when you don’t feel well! In the first few weeks of school, some students were worried I was going to die from the pneumonia when they heard me cough, and one endearing child actually cried, which broke my heart. I promised them that I'm on the mend.

             My pneumonia is small compared to what many others walk through, from heartaches to financial woes to trials to actual serious life-threating illnesses like cancer. One of my colleagues, for example, continued to teach throughout rounds of chemotherapy, like the champ that she is. People like that floor me, especially on days when getting up with the alarm feels like scaling Everest. They come to school and love these crazy kids of out reserves they may not know they had. Even the youngest kids exemplify persistence in the face of their own Everests. One little scholar started out his academic career with a deep dread of writing, and used to psych himself up for it by chanting (in a high squeaky voice, no less): "Come on, self! You can do it, self! I believe in you!" 

              During college, my dad once sent me an email that I’ll never forget. I had been complaining about trying to keep up with work, classes, internships and extracurriculars. He listened nicely, adding some comments at the end of my rant like, “You can do it!” The next morning, he sent me this email:

“Darling Daughter,

Just remember: with harder subjects and problems you have to keep hurling yourself at it again and again. The “walls” around almost anything cannot withstand the constant battering of a determined mind. You take care of yourself now. Try to get good rest every night and take your vitamins. Always take vitamins!!  

Love,

Dad”

This is what I tell my students, and this is what I tell myself too, because we are human and we get tired. When I feel especially constricted by my humanity, I like to fall back on this truth:

Colossians 1:11-12 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

May the wisdom of my dad and the eternal wisdom of our Lord encourage and lift you up during this new week of teaching!! Looking forward to sharing our amazing inheritance some day.

Love,

Miss K