My brother and one of my closest friends had a field day at my expense after what happened a week ago. Long story short, I didn’t learn from my lesson from a few months ago and tried to do so many things at once. So, yeah, I almost had a fainting episode in front of my students and I got send home because of it. It was an unsettling feeling but I should provide some backstory to this one.
Let me start off by reminding you all that I’m the only foreign teacher at my campus and it’s been that way for around five months. Because of this, I was being loaded with 25+ teaching hours. That means that I have around 25-28 classes a week with 400 students to teach and remember. Along with that, I had projects that I was working on while teaching. And I was told that time and time, again, to slow down and take it easy. At least, until, my colleague comes back to work.
As stated before in my previous blog post, my colleague was stuck in his hometown of Ireland because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, I had to take his classes and mine causing my principal to stress the importance of balance and mental wellbeing. But, of course, I didn’t listen and I ended up feeling a fatigue snap in my classroom. Luckily, my kids are the best and immediately told my principal.
It was so cute. I could hear them telling him (his name is Sawyer, by the way) that “Justin Lǎoshī is sick”. Now, I tried to tell them that I’m not sick but it was pretty unconvincing given the fact that I was taking a knee in front of them. I just felt one of them pat me on the head that made me laugh. I really couldn’t help myself; it was so cute of them to care. It also gave me hope for the future of humanity.
So, while being escorted home, I was further insisted on taking it much much slower until my colleague gets back to work. Not to stop working on my writing but to take it slow because I’m the only one left – for now. It was a wake up call for me and it made me reevaluate my approach to handling my projects for here on out. To put it simply, take it one task as at a time and I should be fine.
I told my brother about this and he laughed his ass off. Was it insensitive? Sure but I had it coming. He has been telling me for months to take it slower. He has been stressing for me to take a full day of rest so I’ll let him have this one. My friend did the same thing but emphasis on the same point my brother made. TAKE A DAY OFF. Which is what I’m doing. Monday’s my day off and I’m going to make sure I take it. Video game galore!!
Now, please, don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads) which are on the right side of my web page. Also, I do love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and Fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2020. My goal is to read 115 books this year and I’ve completed that goal. However, I’m far from done with the challenge and I probably end up reading 120 before the year is out. I should get back to reading. lol
