First day back for the 2023-2024 school year! For the first time in 25 years I took the whole summer off, a full 6 weeks, and while it was great, I have to admit, it’s kind of nice being back in the office. I’ve always loved the whole “season” of returning to school, I used to love going school shopping for clothes and school supplies when I was a kid, and I still even do it now. Although I have way too many office supplies and really should be getting rid of stuff, not adding to it! I’m feeling a bit like a blank slate because I haven’t met with my boss yet so I don’t really know what’s on my plate and the new things I’ll need to be taking care of, so I’m a tad nervous, to be honest. But this time of year has always felt more like the “new year” than January does to me.
I’m excited to be able to begin implementing some of the things I’ve been learning in my leadership classes to my work. It’s all felt a bit abstract and nebulous, almost like learning in a vaccuum, being out of the work place. And even at the end of the year, because so much of my work is focused on tasks schools have to take care of at the beginning of the year, the end of the year is always slower for me, and so less opportunity to use what I’ve learned since March. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 6 months of the doctoral program so far. I’ve completed 4 classes, 2 of them being leadership content classes and 2 of them being disseration seminars where we are getting started at the very beginning baby steps of our dissertation. I’m in the middle of another dissertation seminar and a policy/law content class, which is super challenging. But I did get to go on a great trip to Washington DC as part of the class and that was amazing.
It’s a nice feeling to be back at work and feeling motivated and positive. It was a rough second half of the year last year, so taking the summer off to recharge was instrumental to how much better I feel now. If only it weren’t still technically summer – it’s not even August 1, so being at school makes it feel like fall but there’s still a whole month left of summer to go!
HorseMonkeyTiger 