Balancing The Days

The most common example of balance in the world is Yin and Yang.

They say that there's the good in life, the bad in life, the bad in the good and the good in the bad; and that's said to be the balance of life.

I got a first hand experience this weekend of how the bad and the good will balance each other out.

I work both Saturday and Sunday mornings as a swim teacher.

Saturday was rather rough, but today was good.

First off, I can't catch little kids that jump in the water because of my thumb/wrist (I was giving my grandmother's dog a bath and I slipped intothe tub) and I was told that someone would be in the water with me at all times in case two of them jump at the same time (because that happens quite often), so I was feeling relieved about that.

Upon arriving to the pool on Saturday I realized that the only person that would be in the water with me would be a practice teacher.

I'm fine with that, but the practice teachers move around and I wasn't guaranteed someone there with me when I knew I needed them, so I borrowed one from someone else.

The practice teacher I stole from a coworker was a guy, probably had a head on me but he's sort of lanky and I thought it was going to be fine.

He came to the first class with me and one little girl started crying and refused to do anything.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong because she's usually really good and loves to swim, so I sent her over to her mom.

They came back over a bit later to the class and the mom explained that it was the practice teacher and she was afraid of him.

I managed to distract her and play games until the class ended, so that all worked out.

After that, I had my last class of the day.

I look forward to my last class, I have the two cutest little girls.

One is always smiling and ready to jump in while the other is really sweet, quiet and still nervous to go into water where she can't touch.

It's understandable at her age, but I don't think she'll be ready to let go of me in deeper water any time soon.

Halfway through the class, the little girl that's always happy to swim just lost it.

She didn't want to swim anymore, she was sobbing and her mom wouldn't take her out of the class and left her in the pool.

I still had another child to teach, so I called over a float teacher and got her to deal with the situation as I continued on with the class with the other girl.

That was my last class so I just left the pool and put it behind me.

It was a rough morning, it was the worst day of lessons yet.

I didn't know what to expect on today, but I was happy with the results.

My first class is a class with both the parent and the child, and I have 10 (parent and child duo) enrolled in the class.

Today, only 4 of them showed up.

It was the most bizarre thing, but I loved it. 

It was a lot quieter, I wasn't buzzing, I could watch what each kid was doing and not think "Oh no, did this kid already do it yet?"

It was so nice, I didn't do as many songs as I usually would, I didn't have to yell as much so it was nice and calm first class.

After that, I have a class where only one kid is enrolled in it, but she didn't show up so I got 20 minutes in the hot tub which was the nicest thing ever.

After that, I only had 3 more 45 minute classes.

I usually find them brutal, but I was able to fill the time up easily and we did fun things, so it was a really nice.

I left the pool feeling pretty good about today and today's lessons.

I feel as though I still have a lot to cover, but I still have at least five more weeks of lessons.

I wasn't as overwhelmed as I can be on Sunday mornings and it was nice to be able to take a breath and really think about what I'm doing and not worrying about the next thing, the next drill, the next song or the next game that we're doing.

I had a bad day at work on Saturday, but I had a great one today.

We always have good days and bad days no matter who we are in he work and what we do, but the days will always be there to balance each other out.

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Take The Time To Relax

I know that I have the biggest softball tournament of the year coming up in about a week and I still have a bad ankle, but when my friend asked me to sub for him and teach swimming lessons, I couldn't refuse.

In the facility I work in, there's a rule that states teachers have to leave their work sheets at the pool in case an emergency comes up and you can't make it in, someone can cover your shift and know what to teach the kids.

My friend doesn't leave his stuff there, everyone knows it but it's not really been a problem until recently.

Awhile back ago, I had to write his report cards for him because he didn't leave his stuff at the facility and no one could get ahold of him to see if he did them or not.

I stayed back to do them, an good thing I did because he never did them.

I got a text from him today asking if I could sub for him today, and as I mentioned before, I agreed.

I asked him what the classes were and where the worksheets/lesson plans were, but I didn't get all the information.

He told me the levels that I were to teach in order and the names (or the majority of the names) of the kids in each class, but I didn't have an lesson plans.

I would've gone over to his house to pick them up, but I couldn't because he was out of town by the time he asked me to sub for him.

I understand that it's not necessarily his fault that I couldn't get the lesson plans, maybe some last minute emergency came up and he couldn't make it into work today, but it's not my responsibility to write some up, for someone else's classes, either.

If there's a rule that says leave them in the work place, leave them in the work place and make it easier for someone who will cover a shift for you.

Either way, I went in early and made up some lesson plans before the classes.

I felt as though the classes I taught weren't well done because I was constantly saying "Um..", reading the lesson plan that I wrote in a rush to have one for each class, and I just wasn't confident in what I was saying.

Had I had lesson plans that were already made, I could've studied them and know what I was doing better, but I didn't have lesson plans and I didn't feel confident in what I was teaching.

When I got home, I have no other way to explain it other than I wasn't feeling all that great and it was because of my teaching shift.

You could say that I felt down about it, but I was also tired and frustrated, so overall I wasn't in a good mood.

It was as if I was disappointed in myself.

Something I realized today is that it's alright to be in a foul mood once you finish something or once you get home.

It's okay to go take a bath and relax, it's okay to stay in your bedroom alone, it's okay to listen to music so loud that you can't hear anything else, anything you want to do that can either distract you it help you relax from whatever event could've taken place.

When I get in a foul mood, I usually don't want to talk to anyone, and you don't have to. However, I would recommend for someone else's sake that if you don't want to talk to anyone yet you get a phone all or a text, tell them something along the lines of "Hey, I'm not feeling all that great at the moment, can I get back to you later?"

That way, you aren't hurting anyone, you aren't making others think that you're ignoring them and its a really polite way to say that you need some space for awhile.

You don't owe anyone anything and you don't have to pretend to be all cheerful when you're honestly in a foul mood, everyone gets that way at times.

Take whatever time you need to just breathe and relax because you owe that to yourself.

i've said this many times before, but your own health comes first, so don't feel as though you have to entertain for other people because you don't.

Take a moment for yourself, and make that moment however long you need it to be.


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