Reflections

Holidays are hard—for so many people and for so many reasons. To me, the illusion of a picture-perfect holiday is unyielding. It's elusive and can't be captured, yet year after year, we repeat our efforts to pursue it. We stress over presents, trying to find the perfect things for everyone on our list. We fill our backgrounds with the music of the season and hope for a wonderful holiday. Except, it doesn't always work like that. Family members disappoint each other. Plans get canceled. Things get said, and the words sting. A gift we've given seems to fall short, and we are left feeling insufficient. Still, it's never really about the gifts. It's about the emotions the season brings to the surface. There are no Christmas cards that describe the difficult parts of the season. Even at my age, I still grapple with this at times. I use that struggle to remind myself that the holidays are hard for everyone. It's not just me.  Some of our students, some of our frie...

I have spent a large part of the last 34 years trying to do right by students, staff, and families. Sometimes, I’ve been highly successful at that, and other times, I’ve fallen short of goals that deserved to be met. Falling short is never a good feeling and can be one we rarely have forgiven ourselves for no matter the time passed. I continue to learn more about the impact of trauma on students (and adults) and how trauma responses like freeze, flight, and even fawn persist in a person, no matter their age. Until very recently, I kept what I knew professionally separate from what I knew personally— or so I thought . After years of research and advocating for others, something finally clicked in my brain regarding this work. How we, as EDUCATORS, choose to respond to threats or perceived trauma is not always within our control—even when we’ve read about and studied trauma. For one reason or another, a phrase, a word, a condition, an event, or even a smell can trigger our body’s respons...