We Talkin' 'Bout Practice! Not A Game...Practice!

I love the quote from Allen Iverson.  "We talkin' about practice.  Not a game, not a game.  We talkin' about practice."  I can definitely relate to the Answer or Allen Iverson.  It makes sense, right?  Well, that depends if you are Allen Iverson, the franchise player.  If you are a scrub and fighting for your spot on the team, you do everything to get noticed.  You might not like Iverson's comment.  To me, Iverson was saying to focus on what matters.  To AI the game mattered and the results of the game.  I see his point and I concur.  You got to find what matters and stick to it.  Practice?  Practice?  Get me to the game on time!

That was no more evident for me than yesterday.  I came home yesterday, after a very rewarding day.  I made three presentations that I felt went supremely well.  My sessions were packed.  People were sitting on the floor and there was standing room only in the back. I think if we could have torn down the the walls, there would have been maybe 80 something people attending or more.   I wish the classrooms were bigger.

My presentation to my bilingual folks went very, very well too along with my writer's notebook sessions.  I shared my heart and hope that people left the session proud and pumped to serve our all of our students.  I got nothing but great feedback from people.

Along the way, many, many people crossed my path from the past.  I really enjoyed seeing them.  It is about the game, not practice, the game!  It is about making the most out of our experiences and treasuring and have an impact on the people that we work with and for.  I felt that in a very tangible way yesterday.

To follow that with today was not really fair.  There is no comparison to my day yesterday to my day today.  I walked into a meeting in the morning. Yes, a meeting.  Not a meeting of the minds.  A meeting to talk afterwards and just whine! I was so tired from yesterday, but still feeling rather euphoric before I entered into that gloomy room. The smell of mold was palpable. Within minutes, my joy was supplanted by something from another galaxy. It felt like Kyptonite that had sucked the life right out of me.  I felt deflated and inconsolable. Wow, how can two days  be so juxtaposed...such polar opposites?  I dragged my feet from my meeting and met an awesome friend to talk about the previous day, catch up on some work.  I was okay now because I was with someone that I connect with, someone with life inside them.  Then I met with two older ladies. I very much enjoyed working with them. They make me laugh. It was so good to see them.  I hadn't seen them in quite a while.  It is nice to be appreciated and missed.

Those past two days has shown me something.   It is about belonging and making a difference. It's about the game, the game! The previous day I connected with so many people and had a sense of belonging. I felt a kinship.  They were my people.  Today was painful. Practice, practice? NOOOOOOO!!!! Mama said there would days like this.  Yesterday...mountaintop... today... lower than the valley.  I guess that is life and you have to do things you really do not like sometimes.  I have to keep in mind that my joy is working with people. I have to get back to that more and to the lower valley from time to time. I wish those meeting times would be less and less frequent.  We talkin' 'bout practice? Not a game...not a game.