Taking a Personal Recess

I made a pretty big decision. I tendered my resignation today.

I am taking a year off teaching to take care of my mom.

In some ways, it was the easiest decision possible. My mom needs me. End of story. Nothing else even matters.

But in other ways, it was a difficult decision. I love my teammates beyond words. And I love teaching.

If you've been following any of the story of my mom's health ordeal this summer, you may have already suspected that this was never going to be a simple recovery.

My mom has made millions of sacrifices for me over the course of my life. So me giving up teaching for a year is really nothing compared to all of that.

If I went back to teaching next month, we would have to hire someone to take care of my mom during the day, so it just makes sense for me be her caregiver instead of a stranger. While I am hopeful that by Thanksgiving or Christmas she will be off the wound vac and able to begin resuming her normal activities, there is no guaranteed timeline for that. So the safest thing for her is for me to take the year off.

And the most fair thing to do for my school and my especially my three amazing teammates is to take the year off so that they are not in a constant state of limbo and dealing with long-term subs filling in for me. And frankly, I don't need that added stress of wondering what is happening in my classroom on a daily basis while I am already worrying about how to best help my mom recover.

My two brothers and sister will of course be helping as often as they can to give me a break, and things will get better and easier as my mom slowly recovers. We've been home from the hospital for ten days and we've had seven home health nurses here in that time. I've already done two wet/dry dressings of the wound myself when we've had issues with the wound vac, so if this whole teaching thing doesn't work out, I think I've got a bright future as a medical tech!

Bittersweet is not an emotion I am accustomed to experiencing. I try to maintain a positive mindset and not allow lingering thoughts of what if or if only because I have never found those thoughts to be particularly productive. While there are countless "Disney-isms" that guide my life, one of my favorites is Keep Moving Forward. I have found those three words to be exceptionally powerful. Having said that, this is definitely a bittersweet decision for me because I do know what I'll be missing – the privilege of teaching with three extraordinary women whose friendship I cherish with all my heart.

To help ease this sense of sadness, I like to imagine that one year from now I will be able to write all about how well my mom is doing and how me taking a year off from teaching to care for her was one of the smartest and most meaningful things I've ever done, because I truly believe it will be. Yes, it will be challenging and tiring and filled with worry. But my mom is everything to me, so when it comes down to it, there's nothing else I'd rather do than be by her side while she heals.

I couldn't do any of this without C. I really couldn't. It is not news that I think he is the most wonderful human on earth, but he has been incredible through all of this. I simply would not be able to take on this role for my mom without his unwavering support. He makes everything better. Always. When I'm tired, hungry, sad, overwhelmed, worried, frazzled…he makes it better. And even when things are going well, he makes it better. I am eternally grateful for all he does and how he can make me laugh like no other, but mostly for how fiercely he loves my mom. I don't know how I got so lucky to find him, but he is one in a billion!

Happy tails to you!