Calgon, take me away

I am most assuredly ready for a break. My allergies continue and this weekend was another one spent sleeping more than anything else as ears and throat throbbed and itched. Annoying. I know, its relative. I'm just kind of done with the allergy season lasting from December until now. I know two things for sure. My allergies may be as bad. And I need an apartment with hardwood floors. If Spring break doesn't help the stress aspect of all of this, I may decide to move by May. I don't know how much more I can take. Its all really quite interesting. My body responds to stress in the worst of ways. When I had to sit at a desk all day, I dealt with chronic pain. Now, I seem to get allergies and sinus infections. I notice that when I eat well, exercise a lot, and am generally balanced, allergies and sinuses are not nearly as bad. I hope the shots do the trick, but if not, then I may have to seriously reorganize my life and figure out how to eliminate stress pretty much all together. Americans may not believe it, but honestly there is an amazing amount of pressure that I have never felt living in other countries. There are obviously trade-offs, but something has to shift because the stress is going to get us all. And life is too short to spend it feeling lousy all the time because you are too stressed. I tend to agree, although she gets a little wacky at times, with my yoga teacher. She says that we find what we love and dedicate ourselves to that, the stress dissolves. Its all about understanding the balance between what is necessary for the job and what is necessary for you. As I make my decision for next year in terms of jobs, I have to really look at my own willingness to become part of a school where I am going to work 10 hour days. I probably do that many days regardless, but the trick is knowing that I can leave if I want to and do not feel like people are looking at me like I am less dedicated. I suppose I will commit myself to knowing that at least twice a week, I will go home early. Much of my problem is organization. No matter what I do, I feel like I can not find and organization method that works for me. The beautiful thing about moving to a higher grade is getting the students to help with that, share the work and teach them values in the process. Right? I just need to take the time to organize myself in the classroom, organize myself at home and give myself some room to relax/exercise. I also hope that with older students I will not be plagued by the germies of first graders. Here's to life changes...and hoping!