One per week

I've been thinking about this blog, and what I'm trying to do here besides just try to get my thoughts down in words. I wish I had found a blog that told me something every week to try. Maybe I would have done better sooner.

I think that trying one new thing a week is just about right, not too much. Even if you just think about it, see if maybe it might be something you want to try, even that amount of thought might be helpful.

It's hard not to be grown up yet, but have to figure it out before you are. It's a lot of pressure.

What's kind of crazy to me is that I look at friends who make things look effortless that I have to really work hard to do, but I also have other friends who think that things come easy to me that they have problems with.

I'm glad that some of these posts seem to be helpful, which means I'm going to keep writing until I run out of things to say.

What are you proud of?

I was asked recently if there was something I was especially proud of, and I was kind of surprised by the question, because it really was focused on school accomplishments. My answer was a little bit surprising too.

I am most proud of how many projects my teachers have asked to keep so they could be used as examples for future classes. It isn't just the grades, although of course getting the highest grade on a special project is pretty great too. My pride comes from creating something so good that it was considered the best example to show others about how to do the assignment, setting a standard to aim for.

The other day I saw my Silk Road scrolls on the wall in the AP World History classroom, and I hear that the video of the one-act play about two young traders making their fortune on the Silk Road was shown to this year's classes. Down the hall is the Catch 22 billboard and the Greek Isles brochure. The champion purple and white mousetrap car is on display in the lab. Across campus is a book explaining the parts of the brain for my AP Psych class, and over in the theater department there's an exact scale model of a furnished medieval castle great room. Across town at my old middle school is the periodic table I made using flavors and colors of jelly beans, and a book explaining Newton's laws with original cartoons. All were kept for examples of best of the best.

There are fewer and fewer projects every year, and I miss them. They were fun and I worked hard on them, but it's nice to leave a kind of standard for the kids who come after me.

Besides, I'm too old to have them on display at home. I am, right?

Breakfast. Seriously.

You might be the exception to the rule. By now I know I'm not. I feel so much better, and DO so much better, when I eat breakfast. And not just any breakfast - a good one. Coffee has almost replaced hot chocolate, plus some fruit like cantaloupe, and for sure some protein:  an omelet, oatmeal with walnuts and raisins, granola and milk, or the breakfast tacos we like here in Texas. Sometimes it's annoying when your mother's right, but that doesn't mean you should skip it.

Baskets and file folders

Not to get carried away with this stuff, but there IS a place in your life for organization.

It's almost the end of the first semester, and stuff is really piling up in my world. Here's what's saving me from drowning in paper.

First,  a plastic basket about the size of notebook paper or a little bigger, for tossing all the completed work that can stay home - usually because it's been graded and returned, or it was for reference and you're done with that topic, etc.

What's great about this is if you do it right - which means staying on top of it most days - then it's sort of like an archeological dig:  the deeper you go, the older the material. Don't throw stuff away, but don't keep carrying it around with you. Put it in the basket and it will be there if you need it.

You want more organization? File folders. Just make one per course, and then after you close out a chapter (or whenever you feel like you want a little more o-r-d-e-r in your life) just sort whatever's in the basket into the folders. Put the folders in a file drawer of that otherwise empty desk. Then admire your empty basket.

See, doesn't that feel good? You are not drowning in a blizzard of paper afterall.