A student walked into my room recently, took a deep breath and declared, "There's good air in here." I looked at him and asked what he meant. He said very seriously, "I'm very air-sensitive, Ms. Olson." I laughed a little and said, "For real?" He clarified that he has asthma, but reassured me "you always have the good air in here." He said he breathes better in my room. I had no idea "air sensitivity" was a thing outside of major pollution issues. I turned 35 this month and I have to be honest: this isn't what I thought my life would look like. If I'm brutally honest, the air is sometimes a little dry. My days are full, but my apartment is empty. My calendar is full but the future is a question mark. Sometimes I wonder if anything I'm doing is purposeful or if I'm just marking time until God calls me home to Heaven. Don't get me wrong. Life is good... but it's different than I imagined and some of that
Maybe it's the time of year or maybe it's the season of life I'm in, but lately there have just been a lot of decisions to make. I suppose it's always been true, but I feel it more lately. Maybe you can relate. What's for dinner? What am I wearing tomorrow? Do I need to do laundry today or can it wait until tomorrow? What about groceries -- am I good for the recipes this week? Should I go to the gym before work or after? Well, how am I going to do my hair tomorrow? Oh shoot -- was that Amazon package supposed to show up today? Maybe I should go home early so it isn't sitting out. No -- I have to get these papers graded. Well, maybe I can get them done on my prep tomorrow. Ugh -- I'm too tired to exercise. Did I go enough times to get the health insurance kick-back yet? Decision fatigue. It's a real thing. We've all been there. As a teacher, I think I feel it more than ever because aside from the questions listed above, I'm also managing quest