Its All a Matter of Perspective

Well it is official; school is back in session after the Christmas Break. Yesterday, the faculty and staff returned for a workday and today the students returned. The school has been bustling with activity from new families coming to school registering their children to the Central Office beginning their dissemination of guidelines and mandates from the state.

One of the best parts of my day is when I am out of the office and visiting classes or out on the playground during recess. Today when I was making my rounds during afternoon recess one of our second girls came up to me and said, “You look handsome today.” Now for a bald, fifty year old man with a paunch in the middle that really made my day. The interesting thing was watching the reaction of the students around this little girl. The looks they gave her were like, are you crazy? It was a matter of perspective that this child for some reason that even baffles me would give a complement such as this.

Wouldn’t life be so much more enjoyable if we took the time to have a different perspective on the situations we face? To find something good in each circumstance that we find ourselves in. Yesterday, I spent the day just going around asking my staff how their holiday break was. It was an enjoyable day for me since I took the time to step back and forget about the upcoming state tests, the reports the Central Office needs, or the filling of vacant positions and just talk to my staff. To get a different perspective of how I view them.

The things they shared with me were truly a gift. I had a teacher who got engaged, another who purchased a fifth wheel trailer and who shared information about the upcoming trip to Colorado this summer, still another shared they got a new Boston terrier puppy, while other shared the joy of spending time with loved ones. I feel that by asking them to share, they saw me in a different perspective as not only their boss, but that I wanted to truly get to know them in a more personal sense and this creates a true sense of belonging, and isn’t that what we all want.

To me, Country music really hits home when it comes to life. One of George Strait’s most recent releases entitled “The Breath You Take” makes us think about how we view life events. The lyrics of the chorus really talk to me about perspective. They go like this:

“Life’s not the breath you take.

Breathing, in and out,

that gets you through the day,

ain’t what its all about.

You just might miss the point,

trying to win the race.

Life’s not the breath you take,

but the moments that take your breath away.”