Time for Reflection

I’m not always good at slowing down to take a minute to reflect. It’s something that I have to force myself to do as a habit. In fact, this blog is a big part of getting me to stop and reflect on the week. Without those forced habits, I am far too task-oriented to stop and appreciate things or think about how they could have been different or better. I do believe that reflection is essential to personal and professional growth, so despite my natural aversion to it, I choose to work on it. But every now and then, reflection will slap you in the face. That happened this week.

Ten years ago this week, I traveled to Washington DC to accept the award for the National Blue Ribbon for Greene Early College, where I had served as the principal the year before. The awards ceremony was on my birthday and I felt so proud to be there, but also knew that other than filling out the grant application, I had very little to do with the award. The teachers at the school had earned that and I was just there to represent them. Fast-forward a decade and I found myself having dinner with the governor, surrounded by some of the brightest minds the Old North State has to offer. On the drive home, with my wife asleep in the passenger’s seat, I had time to reflect. 

I’ve had some pretty awesome opportunities in my life. And when you have dinner with the governor, Eric Church and several professors and authors that are decades ahead of their peers, you can’t help but wonder how you got there. That meal is a long way from mucking horse stalls and shelling butter beans that were a regular part of my youth. And once again, just like I knew from the Blue Ribbon award, I’m there because of the people that help me do the work. I’ve been exceptionally lucky to work with people that care about what they do. So on the ride home, and with Thanksgiving a week away, it hit me like a ton of bricks just how thankful I am for the opportunities I’ve had on behalf of the work you all do. As a team, you deserve a lot of extra credit. So over the next week, I hope that you also get to reflect and appreciate where you are and the people that helped you. So little in our personal or professional lives is accomplished on our own. Even when we hit a big goal or milestone, there are people supporting us or filling the voids so that we could focus on that task. Schools and the lives of students and educators certainly are no different. So somewhere in the next week, I hope that you get the chance to reflect on that. Like me, I'm sure you've already come a long way from where you started.