my_anxiety

So let me start by saying that I’m not actually crazy, but I’m not far from it.  Here is my issue.  I have a bit of an obsessive compulsive thingee (not sure thingee is the medical term).  This has been extremely helpful for me when I was a young, single teacher.  I became pretty obsessive about my teaching and my students.  I worked tirelessly on creating cool, innovative projects.  I returned papers with great comments almost immediately.  And I was available to my students virtually 24 hours a day.  It was a life that I loved, and I really felt that my obsessive tendencies made me better at my job.

A few years ago, I decided to put myself up for the position of athletic director of my current school because I really wanted to be a part of building a great athletic program to go along with our school’s already fine academics.  I got the job primarily because my bosses knew I would put in the time and energy to get the job done well.  This went very well for the first three years, then something really weird happened.   I fell in love.

Having a wife and child makes everything better!  My boy, who I adopted when I married his mother, is now three and simply amazing.  My wife is the most incredible person I have ever met (and I know several people) - I am a bit biased.

SO anyhow, my obsession with my job didn’t necessarily end when I got married and my wife eventually let me know I needed to get my priorities straight.  SO I did.  Unfortunately, for my, that meant obsessing about my relationship with my wife instead.

I will finish this thought tomorrow - but I am defintely interested to hear about others who have trouble balancing the passion for teaching and the quality family time we love.

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