OK, so I am officially done! Two months of parental leave has just started. People have been asking how it feels. Well, I really don’t know because it hasn’t sunk in yet. I have signed out of my office, emails and phone calls. I am now off limits according to my colleagues ? I think they know that I enjoy what I do so much that it is easy for me to jump back in. I have told myself that I have sent my last email from work for two months.
Now, I am going to be away for two months but it seems like I am going away for good. I think this is because I have never stepped away from my job at the university as absolute as I have. Absolute meaning that I am not going to be a part of the program I got to build from the ground up. For those of you who know me, know my calling is in student engagement and my students. They are my foundation and the relationship I have with them is very important to me. I really care for these young leaders. I have had to change my perspective because it felt like I was abandoning them but in actual fact, it is growing from the time off. I equate this to being a carpenter building a house. I have built this house over the last 8 years and it is time to finish admiring the work and start building a new house. I think it is also trying to walk forward while looking over your shoulder…remember, turn your head forward and walk along.
I will be back in two months and I will grow from the experience of walking away and I will use the time to reflect, grow and spend time with the expanding family. Feb 27th and the C-Section is not that far off. Right now this is where I need to be. I think my true test will be to not go into my work email. I have committed that I will not and I will hold to that. If I do, you will hear about it.
So how am I feeling about all this…more and more comfortable and accepting of it. So much so that tomorrow I am going to go to Whistler and the sliding centre and go down a bobsleigh run…you will also hear about that ? I do want to say thank you to my students, colleagues and friends. You make me feel very appreciated.