Time - 001 Dear Mammy & Daddy

Dear Mammy and Daddy, 
So, I have been thinking over the past while how I can't believe it is coming up to 10 years since I moved away from the comforts of the home you created for me for so many years. The memories, the ups, the downs, the ins, the outs, all of them had a big part to play in the person I am today and I am so grateful for you and everything you have helped me achieve so far. 

The more time that goes by the more happier I am with my own personal life but a part of me feels guilt, worry and sadness for all the years I don't get to spend with you. So, I don't think anything will ever replace time spent with you in person but I wanted to take you on board the amazing journey I get to go on and create a space where I can bring you more into my life on a weekly basis. 

I have tried to write physical letters to you each week but that just doesn't seem to happen, so instead I want to create a digital letter to you where I share my experiences of the week.

​Don't worry mammy, this won't replace the phone calls and I promise I will still try to write physical letters but as part of Season 2 of Empathetic Educators, I wanted to write a weekly journal every Friday of the goings on of my process and what better way than to share them with you. 

​So here it goes.....

What do use have to look forward to haha?

​Basically a weekly run down of my reflections on the week. One of my favourite things to do is look through photos and think about what was happening in my life at that moment and how it influenced where I am at right now.

As part of Empathetic Educators our tagline is 'our choices have an impact - what impact will you have?' and this has stemmed from all my choices over the years and how they have impacted me and those around me positively or negatively.

​So I want to take this time just to reflect and share the ups and downs with you looking at the themes of growth and relationships for Season 2 through the lens of perspectives :) 

Time.

This week I have been thinking a lot about this. 

How do we spend our time? Do people respect our time? Do we respect other's time? 

The more I think about it, the more I think it is one of the most valuable things we have as humans. In fact the more I think about it, in some ways time is all we have. 

This year, 2020, will go down in history books for the absolute rollercoaster that it has been (so far). My own personal rollercoaster in chronological order includes

• Getting accepted for jobs in Japan
• COVID hitting the world, uncertainty of everything
• Adapting to Lockdown in New Zealand
• NZ doing well with COVID
• Moving to Japan and starting a new job alone during COVID
• Getting our Permanent Residency for NZ accepted

​And the year isn’t even over yet haha! And I think these experiences have re enforced why I am so passionate about Perspectives, Growth and Relationships.

Since I have left our beautiful home town of Derry, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience life in many different countries around the world. And throughout the ups and downs of this year where travel is restricted it has made me really reflect on what we spend our time on.

As you call me, ‘the social butterfly of the family.’ I am very much a people person. I want to help people, I want to be around people, I want to be in the middle of the party haha. And that is still a part of me but as the world has had to pause, I have had to pause.

During my two week quarantine alone I was scared I was going to go crazy, maybe I did. But it made me think - how much time do we give to ourselves? What does our inner voice say when we are alone? What happens when we are always looking outward for connection? What happens when we are always looking inward for connection? 

After speaking with many people from around the world, we have all tried to adapt to our new normal in a variety of ways and the words that I have heard many say are gratitude, optimism, growth and perspectives have helped with the process. 

This is a quote an amazing fighter from CKB in New Zealand, Genah Fabian, shared a few months ago and it really stuck with me. During my first year of teaching in Hackney, London. I use to say to you (mammy and daddy) how can I feel sad or upset when many of my learners are going through such a rough time? But over time I have realised that it is okay to feel.

The idea of Empathetic Educators started all those years ago when I literally use to feel the feels of all my learners and I couldn’t separate what was happening to them from my own feelings. But over the years I have been able to take some perspective within my relationships - with learners, with family, with colleagues etc - What am I spending my time on? How am I processing what is happening to people around me? What am I accepting vs what am I expecting from people?

Sometimes we can dwell on what we have to do during the day, myself included. But Rob (my partner in crime) is very good at having perspective on life and even last night when I was in a spiral he was able to get me to have perspective. And it brought me back to this quote. 

Some people have had seriously heavy things happen to them over the past year especially. So even though it is okay to feel no matter what others are going through. How can we show gratitude for what we get to do? 

I have to cycle home and I am going to have dinner late vs I get to cycle home and I get to have dinner on my table 

I have to go to the bank and sort all my chores vs I get to go to work and have money to get to pay the bills 

So, what can we do with our time? How can we use it for good? How can we use our time to foster relationships physically and digitally??

Just a few ramblings from the best child 😝 Hope you enjoyed.... above is just a few wee photos from the week just gone of our amazing experience in Japan. This weekend we are going for a 2 hour train ride outside of Tokyo, so let's see how that goes! 

Hope you have a great week.

'Our choices have an impact - what impact are you going to have?'

xoxo