Slice of Life Day 31: More Win Than Not

Well, it's the last day of March. The second day of spring break. The end of a month of being gone every single weekend. And the last day of the Slice of Life Challenge. I can't say that I met the challenge, because I didn't slice every single day.

But I'm counting this as more win than not.

Even though I missed some days, I kept coming back. I didn't let it defeat me, unlike when I miss a day of eating healthy and the next day inhale a whole bag of trail mix. Or when I miss a day of running and use that as an excuse to stop for three months. Or when I procrastinate on putting feedback on student papers and leave them sitting until... well, you get the point. I tend to be a quitter when I fail to meet a challenge, but that was one part of the agreement I made with myself when I decided to slice this year. No quitting, even if you miss a day.

I learned a lot this month. I learned that I have something to say, almost every single day, and that if I force myself to sit down and do it, I will come up with something. That's huge, because there have been so many days that I convince myself that I don't need to blog, because I just don't have anything to say. I do. It's just a matter of finding it.

I learned to look for inspiration in unexpected places. I would find myself tucking away ideas from other slicers, noticing an interesting sentence or paragraph in a book as a possible slice idea, flipping through art books to get ideas from pictures, and spending a lot of time perusing my writer's notebook for seeds that could turn into slices. This was a month of noticing new places to find things to say.

I rediscovered poetry this month. I have always gravitated toward writing poetry, but I shied away from posting it on my blog, because I wanted to be all "education-y." But this is who I am, and part of my being a literate teacher is poetry. I really loved writing the poems I've shared.

I learned not to expect so much of myself. I tell my kids all the time to give themselves a break. Nobody writes a masterpiece every time they sit down. The greatest authors in the world have some dud days (probably more than great days)! If you're expecting greatness every time you put the pen to paper, you're setting yourself up to fail. I had to give myself permission to write some "throw-away" pieces, ones that I knew weren't great or going anywhere in particular. And you know what? People were kind anyway. Even on the slices I hated, there were positive comments. 

I have felt more like a writer this month than I have in years. And I have plans to continue being a writer. Probably not every single day, but I plan to keep slicing on Tuesdays, and to share poetry one day a week on my blog, in addition to those "education-y" posts.

I so appreciate the Two Writing Teachers blog, and all of the people who are in the Slice of Life community, for being so amazing and supportive and for coming up with this great idea. It was a great first time experience, and I look forward to making this an annual event!