Jumping In!

When I was a child, my mom made me take swimming lessons every summer for a few years.  I had almost always had been successful at other skills and academic skills in the past, so I thought that swimming would be the same way.  

The class had about 5 children in it.  In the first class, the teacher asked each child if they could swim.  Everyone before me answered, "No."  Well, I didn't want to disappoint the teacher, and besides....it looked easy!  I said, "YES" and managed a sloppy jump forward in the water.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a breath at first, and the teacher had to rescue me from drowning.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to be successful and thought you could do it at first because others made it look easy?  Suddenly, you are thrown into the task (or you throw yourself in) and before you know it, you are drowning and someone needs to rescue you.  Hopefully, that someone is a friend and/or a mentor, who honestly wants to help.

Or maybe....this has happened to you in the past and now you are scared of the water like I was and still am.  (At the age of 50, I have yet to jump off a diving board, and have only jumped into the deep end once.). After teaching kindergarten and first grade for 25 years, I found myself in the role of a preschool teacher, and I felt like I had just jumped into a big ocean, in the deep end, without a life jacket.  Yikes!

Fortunately, I learned long ago to surround myself with people who can support me and help me grow.  This was the case now in preschool.  I wanted to teach preschool for many reasons.....to be a part of a church ministry to interact with children, and to pull myself out of debilitating depression, but the biggest reason was to work with my amazing director.  To protect her privacy, I'll just refer to her as Ms. Director.  She is well known in our church and community as someone who loves big and is generous with her money, time, and forgiveness of others' shortcomings.  I want to be like her when I grow up.  

In addition to Ms. Director, I met the other Christian women who would be teaching and helping at this brand-new preschool.  I greatly admire their servant attitudes and efforts to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  I wanted these women in my life....I NEEDED a circle of women who were genuine and could be counted on every single day.  

Friend, I don't know how much experience you have in preschool, or how much support you have from your director and co-workers.  I hope that you have a wonderful circle of cheerleaders.  I want you to know that I am in your corner!  I am starting this blog to record my learning journey through preschool, but I also hope to support others who are new to preschool and need someone to swim with to the finish line.  After all, fish who swim together are called a SCHOOL! :)