What was I thinking?

Well, this is scary and frustrating!  What was I thinking that I could start a blog just like that? Learning a new on-line system of doing things is annoying and humbling and makes me want to give up before I’ve even really begun. If you’re able to read these posts then it’s due to your skills in finding them and not mine in posting properly. Thank you. 

In spite of all the obstacles that I’m coming up against as I try to do this, I’m not ready to give up. Learning the process of blogging is part of my journey.

Trying to figure it out is like an annoyingly difficult Wordle but, I hope, more rewarding. 

I’m trying to pull from my own experience of persistence and that of people I know. During my last years of teaching, I had to learn a whole new way of teaching my class: virtual school. I slowly and methodically watched hours of Youtube videos to create and set up my Google Classroom, transfer in-person lessons into a digital format and make instructional videos. The learning curve was extremely steep at a time of tremendous uncertainty and fear in the world. It was not an overnight accomplishment. It took over a year until I was comfortable choosing to teach an entirely virtual class for my final year. Heck, just having the courage to learn how to spend my days with them on Zoom took at least two or three “give up and then try again”s. My students were very forgiving of my mistakes and we supported each other through the daily inevitable technical glitches.

I know a woman in her nineties who recently told me that she spent the day trying to sync all of her devices. If she can persist with something that baffles her most of the time, so can I. Her advice is to slowly and methodically follow the instructions (something I tend to jump over).

So, I will be kind to myself. I will persist and give myself the gift of time to figure this out.