TOUGH TIMES JIM G. MENDOZA

“Maybe it’s not supposed to be easy. Maybe you’re one of the rare few who can handle tough times and still choose to be a loving person, maybe it’s going how it’s going because you’re built for it”. – Robin Hill Jr. Let’s be honest, teaching is a tough job. Especially in this trying time because it called into question the role of teachers in a pandemic. We all felt like flailing in a vast of confusion of what are we going to do now? That is why teaching is only destined for few who have the special calling, who are devoted and passionate to children. There are moments of uncertainty when I thought I wasn’t meant to be a teacher. How can I teach young minds to be the best version of themselves without dogmatizing what is supposed to be learned every day? To be unique in this diverse world where everything is fast changing? To find out what is the best learning strategy considering individual differences? And solve their problems to be freely learned the lesson without hesitation and setbacks? I was struggling. It was hard, it was tough! There is a famous expression by Joseph Kennedy that says, “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. When the situation becomes difficult, the strong will work harder to meet the challenge. Sometimes when we are in a tough situation, we learn to boost our potentials and grow. The strength within us naturally comes out. Just like the saying in the old proverbs, just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

When going through tough times as a teacher, consider these few tips:

•Know your worth. Remind yourself of your impact and how their lives change because of you or you lack of impact if you give up on them as if you have given up to the hope of the future.

•Focus on your mission. To transform and mold young minds to become productive citizens of the world. Seeing their smiles and hearing their inspiring stories, their enthusiasm in life.

•Be confident in your abilities. You have to remind yourself that you have worked very hard and spent many years studying to get to where you are today.

•Refuel yourself. Go back to your first love which is teaching, how you never get tired of doing things with love in spite of over stimulating activities. Taking time by yourself, contemplating and meditating to God the passion he has called you to do for the rest of your life.

I hope these tips held keep us in perspective. It just means that what seem like big or difficult and tough times in our lives as a teacher are small compared to the determination and ability within us and the glory that will be revealed in us in the end.

-oOoThe author is Teacher I at San Rafael Elementary School