Using MY tools (badly)...

Just for the record, the irony isn’t lost on me. 

I am learning all sorts of new things and I am not always loving the journey despite the core message in the book I am promoting that learning is fun and we all have the tools we need. 

But, I am learning all sorts of new things. This is wonderful and I am grateful for the opportunity to explore a whole new world. It is also wicked hard and unbelievably frustrating at times. And I am almost assuredly learning much of it the hard way and with decidedly less composure than I should admit to. As a non-native user I find that little of it feels intuitive and I swear nothing works the same way twice! Things that should take a couple minutes are taking much longer. If I were in school with the children I hope to help with the toolkit in my book, I would spend a lot of time in the principal’s office for using bad words (many of them, many times).

So I remind myself before doing anything I’ll regret, like smashing my computer or posting something truthful but wholly inappropriate, that I just don’t know how to do all of this YET. I’ve dabbled in the world of website building and social media, but I’ve usually had people. People that knew more than me but that made me feel competent and made it all feel easier. Me alone in my office doesn’t feel competent or easy. Thank god for Google and YouTube tutorials. And patience, and persistence, and maybe a glass of wine at the end of the day to toast whatever I’ve been able to accomplish. 

After a deep breath (or seven), I remember to practice what I’m preaching. Or better, to use the tools that I’m teaching. There’s the battery tool that reminds me to have a positive attitude about my ability to learn. And the map shows me there are lots of different ways to get where I’m going. Some of those ways are longer and more circuitous. They can (I tell myself) also be scenic in that they allow me to happen upon neat places I didn’t know I was looking for. In the story, Leslie suggests the rubber band is there to remind us to stretch our brains to learn new information. ALL of this is a stretch right now and that makes me feel taut when I’m deep in the weeds. But there’s also a net that will keep me safe from the many little and big failures in my future. I recall a book that was popular in the 80s called Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. My version may be that everything I need to know I am learning FROM kindergarteners. Kiddos who still learn by osmosis and just by being CURIOUS about all the new things in their world. Thank goodness for snack and nap time!