It is funny. We have a lifetime to think, but some days lend themselves more favorably to have clear thought. I saw a meme about educators in summer. It begins with the excitement of having days without school obilgations. Notice that I did not use the words “summer off.” Educators have the mandatory vacation days during the summer, during which their 190 yearly paid days is stretched out over 365 days. In theory, most educators do in fact have a chunk of time to themselves and their families over the summer months. Some of us choose to use that time to catch up on household chores that seem to fall by the wayside during the school year. Others make time to connect with friends and family who they may have less time to see during the school year. Others still may use the time to challenge their minds with professional or personal learning. Someone told me once that I love to learn. That statement took me by surprise a little bit. I always thought myself to be intelligent, but not necessarily one who wants to pursue knowledge. That sounds weird, I know. Honestly, now that I have completed graduate school……finally……I am considering what could be next. I wish there was a way to be ok with turning off the brain’s desire to soak up more. I feel that with each year passing, I want to learn more and more. Yet, I am also acutely aware that time is fleeting. The more time goes by, the more I think about what I need to do to earn more money to save for retirement. But, to learn more to earn more actually costs more. So, it is spending money to make money, right? There is also wanting to actually learn more. The more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn. We should all want to expand our minds. We should want those around us to challenge our thoughts. More than that, we should want meaningful conversations in our life. To do so requires a continuous desire to learn. Anyone feel the same way? Coming full circle to these summer weeks, I find myself torn between a deep desire to lay in bed with the blankets pulled up and a movie playing on the television, and pulling the trigger on taking another graduate course to develop a new set of skills. Not sure which direction is pulling stronger at the moment. For now, it is trying hard to get out of bed to exercise and see what the rest of the day brings. To all my fellow educator friends, take the time to recharge……whatever that looks like for you!