After watching a TED talk by Brene Brown and the Power of Vulnerability, the proposition that stuck with me was the phrase "I am enough". My roommate and I often have conversations surrounding this topic; about our personal lives as well as our teachers. We often experience "teacher guilt" - am I doing enough for my students? Is what I'm doing rigorous? Am I preparing my students for their future lives? That lesson was just awful, I'm a horrible teacher and my kids deserve better. These are all phrases that have been uttered by the both of us at times. We laugh because usually one of us is the cheerleader or voice of reason when this happens and points out that we are doing our best and that our students will never have another 8th grade social studies teacher and so they don't have anyone to compare us to for this content. Or to remind us that we are constantly getting better or that we are doing good things and it was just a bad day.
In our personal lives, there's always a thought of "Am I going to end up alone for the rest of my life" or "If I was more in shape or wore these types of clothes or did these things, etc" than that would make me better or more attractive. This is something that is commonplace in our society - for teachers and for everyday people as well.
Brene Brown brings up a great point in her talk - we need to remember that "I am Enough". Who I am as a person and as a teacher is enough for my students, for anyone else, and more importantly for myself. This doesn't mean that I can't improve myself or learn to be better - lord knows I've got things that I could improve upon both in my classroom and out - but it gives me the freedom to admit my mistakes and be kind to myself. It gives me the allowance to say "I'm not grading tonight" or "I'm throwing this lesson together 5 minutes before class because I needed to sleep or hang out with friends last night". It allows me to be gentle with myself and remind myself that who I am as a person is enough for where I am in life right now.
