"Love Me, Praise Me, Thank Me..." Oh, Hush Your Face...Unless...

Students can do one of two things: cause me to have a drinking problem, or on a more positive note, exceed any expectation I ever had for them. With that being said, I have really developed an appreciation for an icy cold "beverage." Seriously though, I love being a teacher, but something that drives me nuts is when students want to be praised for doing what life expects from them, like existing. Apparently, being alive is exhausting and requires a huge pat on the back. For instance, a typical response that I have recieved after having asked a student why they didn't complete an assignment is this: "Uhhhhhh (eyeroll...the most dramatic one ever!!!) well, I was soooo busy last night. After school, I had to go to my locker, get my books, walk to the school bus, go home, and like I had to open the door and take off my shoes, and then I had to eat because I was STARVING, and so I walked all the way to the kitchen, and I searched through the pantry, but then I remembered a candy bar in my bag, so I walked all the way back to the front door, but I was interrupted by a severe itch in the middle of my back, and I couldn't reach it, so I found a corner on the wall, and while I was trying to scratch my back..." I think you get the point. I find it ironic that they can give me forty-five minutes of brain numbing excuses about how they were so "busy" but then when I ask them to write a journal entry describing their weekend, they are all the suddenly cursed with the most eventless life ever.

Just because you're not in high school anymore doesn't mean that you still don't do this. Heck, I do it everyday, and do you know how I know?...I'm a list maker. Yep, I make a To-Do List. About 2% of the To-Do List is there to keep me focused and about 98% of the list gives me bragging rights about what I accomplished. It can get bad, though. I think I have literally put Brush Teeth on the list, which doesn't make me that much better than my students. We live in a world where we want to be praised for every little thing that we do, even if it is what is expected! "Please, tell me I'm awesome because I got dressed, went to work, and provided for my family." Those are the people I want to karate chop in the goozle.

How is it, though, that we want acknowledgement for everything from everybody, but we can't give it to ourselves when it is deserved? We are our own worst critics. No one sets the bar higher for ourselves than we do. Teaching aerobics and strength training classes has given me the opportunity to have amazing relationships with fellow gym goers, and I have had intimate conversations with all of them. Each person disregards how much weight they've lost, how much energy they've gained, the new drive they've acquired, and they focus on how much more they have to do or what they have yet to do. Why can't those be our sixteen-year-old-I-didn't-do-my-homework-because-I-was-so-busy moments and go into a long list of things they have done?

Being the best hypocrite I can be, I do this often. Everyday I tell my husband a list of things I didn't get done, or I tell him all the ways I cheated on my "diet" or how I slacked at the gym. I tell my friends how much weight I still have to lose, how many miles I haven't run, how many classes I missed, all while shaking my thighs back in forth to create the jello mold look of jiggle to prove how fat they are. Why can't I focus on the fact that I have lost the amount of two toddlers in the past few years; I have run countless races; I can bench press my mom! People, this is coming from a girl who once lived a day where she didn't get off the couch for ten straight hours and ate cake batter out of the bowl all because she was too lazy to do the dishes to clean the cake pans from the cake she ate the day before! Yeah, that was me...I'm proud and sickened all at once when I think of that day. Anyway, I can't tell you how far I have come, but my inner fat kid still tells me how far I have to go. Please, let go of those everyday chores you want noted by others. Great, you fed your dog! (S)he and I are both grateful that you're doing your part to be a decent pet owner. Focus on the "real" that you have done and lavish in those accomplishments. I have "been there, done that" and my inner fat kid often lets me forget the journey I have taken to make that type of life my past, not my present. But I know better, and I just need to practice it. Celebrate the you now, not the you yesterday, not the you you see for yourself down the road, but the you today. Because the you today is the you I have to ineract with, and if you bum me out, you will get karate chopped in the the goozle.