Uncomfort Zones

This post is based more as a reflection of journey. My journey. How I became comfortable being uncomfortable. This journey started after high school as I dove into pre-service learning courses at my university. I had no real game plan. There wasn't a clear start/finish line. There was just do...and so I did.

Why Are You The Way That You Are?

Two countries and two colleges; both of which I had little to no “friends” (the latter is most true) that led to dramatic changes in my life. The main variable that had consistency through all of those events was the lack of comfort. Let’s start from the beginning. Undergrad was not the most difficult of transitions. Pause Let me start again; the second year of my undergrad was not the most difficult of transitions. My first freshman year of college (yes that would mean I did have two freshman years technically) I was following a passion of mine; of course it was a sport. While in hindsight I thought it was a passion, I found out many things about myself. I will cover this more in a later chapter, but I think it is important now to begin this dialogue because it will become repetitive for my later experiences.

And When I Felt Tired, I Reflected

O.K. so to review, high school grad, no friends (actually one person from my high school), and very unsure about my decision to attend this institution. All good? Great. Rather than continue with every little detail, from doing this same thing in graduate school to traveling to two other continents under the same circumstances, it is important to note that I had no “Master Plan” going into any of those. I knew what I was getting into, and for the most part the end results, but the middle zone of uncomfortability (yeah I just made that up) was something that is still most intriguing to me now. I’ve learned about how I work, learn, and grow/grew during those experiences, and I can wholeheartedly say that I am a more well-rounded and lover of life in general because of it.

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

Relate this to teaching? The “zone of uncomfortability” is a way of being in the field of education. Day in and day out, educators who strive to be effective and relevant for the betterment of their community and their students must live in this zone. However, it must be noted that students, parents, administrators, and others should see a façade of comfort and trust between you and your students so that real and critical learning can occur. Now, maybe I should not have used the term “façade” because in educational realities such as a classroom setting, there can be nothing so fabricated and fake that exists and still an effective classroom full of real students learning real things. The façade I am referring to is the show that an educator puts on, one that usually lasts between bells, where students are so in tune and intrigued they cannot help but to want to continue classroom dialogue “after the final curtain has been drawn”.

Do you have a story to tell? Tell it!...or at least let me tell it. Reach out to any one of my platforms to expose your experience(s), your truth, as both a human and an educator. I would love to hear from you!