Day 17 – Leave it

I love my town. We weren’t too sure about moving 30 miles west of where I work, but we looked and looked, and looked… we couldn’t find anything we really loved. We decided to rent first to see if we really liked it, and to see if the commute was going to prove to be too much.

Well, here we are seven years later, and we still love it! We bought a house three years ago this week. I am enjoying seeing pictures on Timehop of us having our first drink on our “new” deck in our new house. Pictures of piles of boxes and cluttered countertops pop up and I have to smile. Buying a new house is so exciting – but stressful!

Clearly, the drive doesn’t bother me. On a good day, I can make it to work in 45 minutes. The longest it has taken me is over 2 hours (snow!). Most days, it’s 50 minutes. On my way in, I usually listen to a local Chicago morning show. On the way home, it’s typically satellite radio (country music), or an audio book. Both the drive in and the drive home allow me to reflect. In the morning, I mentally go through my lesson plans, and I often think about how to best reach my most difficult students. In the afternoon, I like to think about what went well that day. I find this time allows me to decompress before getting home. Sometimes, a particularly bad day may affect my mood at home, as much as I try to avoid this. I truly want to leave the bad days at work, my family deserves this. When friends and colleagues remark, “I don’t know how you do that drive every day!” I just smile, and think, “It’s worth it!”