tHGie

It has taken me a long time to write about one thing that I tried because thinking about it stirs up a lot of strong feelings for me. I need to talk about it, however. I tried to teach. I taught in one charter school and one public school. I succeed at times, and didn't at others and briefly chronicled my findings in a different blog.

I loved many parts of teaching. I loved when students made personal connections to what they were learning. I loved that both my students and I were eager to go to after school tutoring. I loved watching students gain confidence in themselves. I loved planning  silly engaging activities. I loved determining what would be a good extension for my early finishers. (I picked coding) I loved recommending books and getting book reviews back. I loved playing around the world when we were lined up well and had a moment to spare. I really did love a lot of different things about teaching.

I'm a hard worker and I wanted to push myself every minute for those kids. I didn't have a work/life balance at all, and I went to bed exhausted every night. I came in every weekend to better the learning environment in some way. I practically stopped drinking water so that I wouldn't have to go the bathroom during the day.

Emotionally I carried my students' struggles as if they were my own. How can I better assist in their learning? How do I make sure that they are eating? If I wasn't emotionally taxed enough the administrators at my schools set up meetings with data analysis of standardized tests to function as a new stressor. Walk throughs would be conducted frequently without any useful discussion following. And me- I carried that with me too.

I gave up everything when I tried teaching, and I crashed with a the speed and force of a rocket. I wasn't the first and I won't be the last. Teachers are amazing people. The ones that persevere and continue teaching do so in spite of low wages, superhuman expectations, and communal disrespect. It wasn't for me, and in the era of ineffectual country mandated high stakes testing I think many others will turn away from it. Kudos to those who don't.

NeVeS

It is ok to try things. However, trying is not worth a mention if you do not persevere at it. Cue my new favorite gadget: The Passion Planner. It gives you wings! No, not that. It gives you passion! Things I have tried since getting a Passion Planner: Flossing, Meditating, Running a 5K, Coding, etc.

The Passion Planner is a Planner, with add ons. It has space for doodling. It has space for writing what you are grateful for each week. It has a to-do list and a separate work to-do list. However, most importantly it has a goal brainstormer with monthly check-ins. The Passion Planner is organized to help you reach the goals you actually care about. It was created and funded by a kickstarter because people want help with this. But does it work?

The Passion Planner works so incredibly well! I enjoy creating a new color scheme each week as I take the time to fill in my goals and regularly scheduled programming. One friend bought the planner concurrently and raves about it, and another one bought one based on my recommendation.

Personally, I created this blog because it was one of my goals. I had reminders written in the planner to update my posts, and now my blog has updates. I've had reminders to floss, and now my teeth endure strings of pain. I had reminders to practice running and I actually ran during my last 5K (which anyone who has run/walked/pushed a stroller during a 5K can tell you is not mandatory.) I wanted to write letters to people and receive letters. I've done so so frequently that I've even gotten some back!

You are a Flamingo in a flock of boring ass penguins. Thanks Jackie :)

I even use it for craft projects. When Erin demanded that I recycle my magazines if I want to get new ones I put a collage of my favorite images into the planner.

How do I like mine? At this risk of alliterating, I would say that the Passion Planner is my prized possession.

xIs

I have officially completed 2 "21 day meditation challenges," 1 "Global Meditation for Compassion," and months of independent meditation. I can now officially say that I have tried meditating.

I can also say that I love it. My heart feels active and uneasy when I look at facebook, or my email, in the morning. When I meditate it slows and levels it's pacing.

At first meditating was downright hard. Apparently, I am no longer used to sitting for 20 minutes straight without being in a chair. I couldn't remember mantras in sanskrit (a language that I and most other people in the 21st century don't speak). I would receive my thoughts, and then rather than stare at them in an out of body manner  and let them go- I would follow them in an out of body manner like Alice and the white rabbit. The time felt long, and as if it weren't elapsing at all. The music felt loud and domineering. Nothing about my experience involved an ease or release.

       

Meditation is a practice, however. So I practiced. I did the meditation experiences, and used the time to concurrently develop better sitting posture. I forgave myself when I would forget a mantra, and would continue with the classic fallback, "om." I brought art into the experience of watching my thoughts without engaging them. When they would come I would imagine them as watercolor bands drifting into a white box just ahead of my vision.

I began to really enjoy my meditation time and look forward to it. The negative space created by an absence of thought produced more ideas. Doing nothing produced a me that was more likely to try new things. I even created this blog. If you're considering meditating this author says, "om."

             

evIF

A goal of a true Renaissance woman is to try new things. However, for many things you have to try for longer than one day in order to claim that you have really "tried them" in a way that implies effort.

Take flossing for example. I have been told to floss every 6 months for the last 25 years of my life. So in honor of year 26, I have decided to listen. I decided that this year I would try to floss everyday. And like all lofty goals- this one flopped. 

So, I decided to try for a month. They say that it only takes 21 days to form a habit. (Although apparently "they" is wrong) I even added it to my planner, along with my other goal for the month, meditating. This resulted in the obvious portmanteau for all of your health needs: flossitate. 

Flossitate. 

I piggybacked my habit onto brushing my teeth as was suggested in this article, and decided that I would politely ignore the good advice in this article and this article.

I made a (secret of course) inspiration board on pinterest with inspirational photos for a great flosser. 

See comic source here

Yet I'm still only flossing 80% of the time. The verdict? Though your dental hygienist strongly recommends it, I do not. Flossing is painful, and results in bleeding even when you are past the time period where that should have subsided. It breaks and snaps back at you and can cause frequent wincing reactions. It requires daily effort and I do not condone it.*

*These are the opinions of this author and do not reflect the opinions of dentists, dental hygienists, or anyone with actual knowledge of this field. 

Edit: For really strong advice on picking goals that matter I recommend reading this.

ruoF

I failed cutting in Kindgerarten. My teacher was very concerned and alerted my parents to the problem right away. Whatever would I do?

Cut the shit out of everything (paper) that I saw, that's what. I had the fortune of meeting author and illustrator, David Wisniewski, when I was younger. His illustrations truly allowed me to see art created from shredding paper into tiny pieces. His illustrations of layered paper create more light and shadows, depth, and animus than some pencil drawings I've seen. 

I should note here that this image is not from one of Wisniewski's profound books like Golem, but instead from a personal favorite: The Secrete Knowledge of Grown-Ups.

I'd love to say that I tried to sharpen my exact knife and really attempt such intricate works- but I didn't. I went for the commercial version of the medium. I scrapbooked. 

Never underestimate the meditation involved in mindlessly cutting paper. Do not question the childish joy that the smell of Elmer's glue retrieves. Even as an adult, it is still difficult to get the right amount of glue on the paper. 

Instead learn to layer frames around your pictures, and edit pages to only include odd numbers of pictures. Be sure to journal on various pages to give context and narrative to what you are seeing. Pick themes for different pages in order to create cohesion and ease in your editing process. Color themes have a similar effect. 

I recently created three scrapbooks for the first time. The first was for my Omi to remember our trip to Vegas (she has since lost it in a move), the second was for my lovely mother-in-law as a wedding thank you gift, and the third was for the artist who taught me this new craft: my mom. 

Art Art Art Art Art Art

eerhT

No poo. What sounds like an anti-diarrheal is in fact a movement toward less frequent shampooing in favor of "water only" (WO) washes or apple-cider vinegar and baking soda washes. I have been advised by many a hairstylist to begin shampooing every other day, and instead scrub with water only on the in-between days (an unsurprising suggestion considering that scrubbing more than once a week only came in vogue in the 1970s). I've tried it, and I'm in favor of any beauty regiment that is in fact lazier than my prior one.

Does anyone else's mind jump right to science fair volcanos when they hear those two ingredients?

However, the No poo movement leaves me with one burning question: what about conditioner? What is the purpose of conditioner? Until now it hadn't struck me that I didn't actually know. Maybe I should be seriously concerned that I was scrubbing cream into my hair without actually knowing the purpose of it. All I know is that it makes my hair stiff and gluey like a hair helmet. 

According to the internet, conditioner  is used to change the texture and appearance of the hair. Some sources have cited it's need to change the pH of the hair, others to detangle, others to moisturize after the stripping caused by shampoo.

However, multiple sources also noted that "fine, untreated, and oily hair can also benefit from hair conditioner, but with LESS frequent applications."(1)

If you have not "treated" your hair with lots of products then conditioner might be for you. If you have not "treated" your hair, then your texture and appearance may be just right as is. It sounds like Occam's Razor doesn't it? The solution is the simplest and possibly falsifiable one.

The purpose of conditioner is to fix the problems caused by other hair products! 

owT

Let's learn: computer programming! When I was in school I didn't take this course, so this is a new one for me. I found a beginner course (for kids) at the whimsical and accessible CODE.org. I manipulated Zombies, directed Angry birds through mazes, and even got to create pictures using Elsa's ice skates. They have an extra component that allows you to rig the rules of Flappy bird, causing the bird to gain points by running into objects.

I promise that I was able to get Elsa to draw more than just a small line.

Coding appealed to me because it is described as a "computer language." If there is anything that I adore, it's learning languages. The coding that I learned functions exactly like a language in that it has strict rules, the rules can be applied together, and when the rules are applied together they need to be applied in a certain order to get the desired outcome.

I would recommend this site to anyone with a little free time on their hands. This means that I would recommend it to everyone. This is a perfect challenge for a snow day! While it is designed for children, critical thinking is key to solving the puzzles. As an adult I finished the puzzles very quickly, but still found the work that went into them entertaining. I wasn't turned off by an uninteresting course design, and I was given opportunities to apply what I learned immediately. This is a well made beginner course!

If you want to try something new I highly recommend coding! 

(for the curious: the language that we use on blogger is HTML and I am also obsessed with Frozen during the warmer months)

enO

Cue thunder, lightning and general creation! 7 days await to progress and impress. Here lies a space to day by day write more and more. Here lies a space to expound my travels, triumphs, and trivialities. Welcome to the lair of a renaissance woman.

The word renaissance comes from the latin roots- re + nāscī.  The prefix re occurs whenever something happens "again", and nasci tells us that something "is being born." Therefore the renaissance was a time when the spirit of the world was "born again." This occurred in art, literature, architecture, and learning. 

While the Renaissance occurred years ago for Leondardo DaVinci, and other great thinkers- the term "renaissance man" has come to refer to anyone who's learning, thinking, and experiences are varied and widespread. 

I would argue that this describes a large portion of us in the 21st century. No longer are we streamlined into a permanent career, myopic studies, or even one manner of solving math problems. We are "reborn" constantly as we perform varying portrayals of ourselves, elicit different stores of knowledge, and create with a fervor Neil Gaiman could tout. 

With this culture in mind I welcome you to my primary space of creation. Through narrative, interviews, and fiction I hope to create something beautiful and varied. Who knows, maybe this blog too will find itself in a museum one day.