A Glimpse Back in Time

I was going through some stuff in our bedroom recently and I found a dusty, old bag that I used to use to carry files and things around for work when I had to travel between many different buildings. For the past 10 years or so I have been pretty stable in only one building, so I don't think I've used the bag for at least that long.

After I got most of the dust off I cracked it open to see what was in it. There were a bunch of floppy disks (when is that last time I've used THOSE?), some file folders, some paperwork from when I got my first professional liscence, and other miscellaneous stuff.

There was an entire legal pad of paper filled with notes from meetings I had with students and phone calls I had made and taken for an entire 2 year period! They were my first two years at my job, and probably the last time I took such detailed notes. I made a mental note to get back in the practice again.

The funniest contents of the bag (funny in a bittersweet sort of way) were some of the "personal items" I had in the bag. I had a giant comb....... I can't remember the last time I've needed a comb at work, but when I first started working I had long hair and apparently needed to comb it!

I also a couple different kinds of concealer in the bag. I seem to remember that when I first started working I had some skin issues and needed to cover up some breakouts. Now, my biggest issue is wrinkles and if I need concealer it is to cover the dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep that comes from being a mother of three.

Finding the bag made me think about how different I am now than I was when I first started working and was a newly married, childless, YOUNG 23 year old. Now I am a 35 year old mother of three. I have a body that shows the passage of time, and I have the knowledge and, unfortunately, cynicism that comes with being around awhile. I think of how excited and ambitious I was when I was fresh out of graduate school. How I had so many ideas and couldn't wait to try them, and how I was naive enough to think that everyone I worked with was just as eager to make change.

It was a good reminder of the reason I went into the profession of School Psychology in the first place. Even though I don't always get to do what I have been trained to do in my job, and even though I will always work with people who make it difficult to make progress because of their resistance to change, I hope I never lose the drive that I had when I first started my career. What a great reminder.

Now, I need to stop sneezing and finish cleaning up all this dusty junk!