Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

New Year???

A few days ago, someone asked me the typical end of the year question, "Are you excited about the new year? Have you made any resolutions?" This person was familiar with my dedication to living the examined life and assumed I was in the process of examining the previous year and all of its triumphs and failures with an eye to setting goals of the next. My response was not what the person expected.

You see, I really have about three specific "New Years". The biggest one is the first day of Fall Semester. I think that most teachers will agree with me that the "first day of school" is so full of hopes, expectations, anticipation and the like that the calendar year New Year is drarfed in comparison. For me, there is also the cycling year which ends in early November and begins anew in December with a sort of "limbo" time in between. This New Year is really big on goal setting and planning and all the rest. The biggest thing is that I'll take the medals from this year down from public display and move them to my personal space tonight to symbolize that for all of my accomplishements of last year, this year is a new one with new levels of performance required due to upgrading in my classes.

The biggest thing this night represents is a shift from vacation time back towards preparation time. Again, as a teacher, the beginning of any semester is a big deal and I want to be ready. I have a lot I want to accomplish. My physics 1 students have shown they can work; now they must really learn to think. I'm going to teach the first semester of astronomy my own way during a full semester for the first time ever. Will all of my high ideas of engaged learning really work in a sixteen week session? We'll find out.

In a way, I try to view each day as a "New Year". Of all the goals I set; daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, even longer term than that, they all begin with the things I do today. Let's hope that I can take the small step each day to move in the right directions. As I'm fond of saying about my bicycle racing, "The race I ride in May is won during the training rides in January and February." Or looking at the negative I sometimes say, "I can't win the race today but I can lose it-train hard today." Every day is a day to move forward towards your goals or a day to let your goals move farther away from you. Which will I choose?

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