My Professional Goal? Take Vacation Days

It’s professional #goal-setting time of year. As I embarked on listing what I wanted to accomplish I reflected on a recent workday spent chaperoning a school field trip.

Personally, I have always left vacation days in my back pocket rather than using them. A habit born part necessity, part (self & perceived) expectation, part potential payout when leaving the job and part privilege resulting from my wife being able to be home for the kids.

Then, like many, the pandemic changed my perspective. I went from over a hundred flights a year to nearly none. I connected more deeply with my family and strengthened our bond. The opportunity costs of nights away revealed themselves in subtle ways.

So, a couple of months ago when my daughter said her AP Art History class needed chaperones to go to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art - I offered to go. That’s how I got to my “vacation day.” Where I learned three things…

That is how this post started, but on the bus ride back it changed from three reflections from a trip to something else. Because, well, I found myself in a little awe about the teachers and students on this trip. About how unique, and funny, and committed, and anxious, and just plain wonderful they are. About the magic of a classroom where trust and compassion, patience and shared respect constantly reveal themselves like raindrops landing on a windshield. 

That is the takeaway. My vacation day pulled forward amazing little raindrops my once frenetic work life used to wipe away.

So, as I returned to work I carried their spirit with me. Well, that, and a treasured memory with my teenage daughter which has more value than anything I can accomplish in a day at work. And perhaps, a goal this year will be to take more #vacation days.

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