Relief, trepidation…
I always approach the gift of the Summer Holidays with a mix of emotions – excitement, of course, but also with relief and trepidation.
Relief that the annual milestone has been reached, another year has been notched, and I am one step closer to returning “home”, wherever or whatever that might mean nowadays.
Trepidation because the break is long, and I wonder how best to approach it. On the one hand, I want to have a memorable, relaxing holiday with the family, and on the other, I want to make sure that I do not descend so far into the heart of darkness that I struggle to be ready to start the next academic year. When I let go, I really let go!!
…and distraction
Firstly, I need to give the engine a rest. Schools only have two speeds – fast and stop. When school is in session, there is no respite from working to meet the needs and wishes of parents, students, teachers, colleagues, leaders, emails, meetings, papers, decisions, events (planned and unplanned), planning, mediation, quality assurance, and safeguarding that comes from working and leading in such a large and complex school. And although this state of relentlessness is all part of the deal I signed up for (the other side of the Summer Holiday coin), it is only possible to keep the engine running this hot for a while: we know that they last much longer if they are regularly serviced and given time to cool off. That sounds great to me.
Secondly, I need to remove myself from distractions. I’m probably one of the few parents who still enjoy WhatsApp – perhaps because I do not entertain joining parent WhatsApp groups, where constant pings and inane commentary would be too much for me. However, I can still find any reason (conscious and unconscious) to pick up and check my mobile phone. It always starts with me checking my WhatsApp and work emails. Still, it usually ends with me switching through a series of news and sports sites to check the latest scores, logging in to see if the amount in my savings account has changed over the last half hour (it hasn’t), and a quick flick through LinkedIn to see what others are up to (lots of good stuff).
When school is in session, I always feel I need to keep my phone close (rightly or wrongly) to deal with any of those inevitable calls and emails I need to attend to. However, this is not an addiction that I do not want to take with me on holiday. I (hopefully) have better things to do!
Indeed, this first week has started well. In many ways, I’ve sloped back into the best parts of lockdown – no alarm clock, shaving, and no shirts to worry about. We’ve also gone on a couple of long walks as a family and played a few board games. Love it.
But I have also taken intentional steps to decouple from the digital world. The mobile phone has been put in the bedroom (let’s see if that’s far away enough) and I’ve stashed my smartwatch in my (man) drawer to replace it with my ever-reliable Casio (which will never ping, buzz or tell me how little exercise I am doing). Furthermore, the Ashes cricket series resumes this afternoon (another five days of my life I will never get back), and I also have a stack of books I want to get through over the next few weeks. So, it looks like I’m all set.
It’s not about you!
However, whilst I anticipate a break from distractions, I appreciate that my children’s eagerness for my attention brings its own delightful interruptions. They crave engaging conversations about current events (what on earth is going on in Russia??), they constantly want to play board games (it’s poker for some reason!), or want me to go swimming with them, and, of course, they nearly always want feeding!
Indeed, my family are precisely the distractions that I need to pay attention to over the next few weeks. These are the distractions that matter, the distractions that become memories, the memories that become cherished.
The gift
So, the Summer Holidays present us with a wonderful gift. It’s time to cool the engines, an opportunity to choose our distractions, and the chance to embrace the joys of life beyond work. And if we get it right, we’ll be all the better for it when we turn the key in the ignition again at the start of the next year.
In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the holidays!
Serendipities 