Today, exploding kittens with my students brought me a lot of joy. I’m sure you’re slightly puzzled by now, so I will explain.
I had an unexpected gift today. A handful of my students were staying after school to help me work with middle schoolers on a project. The middle schoolers canceled, and instead of sending the student helpers home, I told them that we could just hang out and have some fun together.
This is not something that happens much in a Type A, overachievers life. Normally, when given extra time, I find a million extra projects that I should work on.
Today, my students and I entertained ourselves and engaged with each other, laughed, competed, and ended up having a lovely time playing a hysterical card game called Exploding Kittens.
This reminded me that sometimes we have to give ourselves a break by accepting cancellations and open slots of time that are unexpected.
Instead of trying to catch up on other things, try to just let your hair down and do something relaxing and unexpected. I honestly left my job feeling more satisfied and relaxed than I have in a long time. I think it helped the kids as well.
As they left, I said, “Let’s all be thankful for unexpected gifts”.