~:[CH15 - Day 120]:~ Overcoming Frustrations

 
~:[CH15 - Day 120]:~ Overcoming Frustrations

I gave a challenging task to my students and they didn't think they could do it. They wondered, "how is this even possible?" It's actually a fun activity, but can be a little frustrating at first. Like anything in education and in life, things can be difficult until you finishing building the foundation. Once they got things rolling, they quickly overcame the frustrations. Frustrations are a part of life, but learning how to navigate things or when to let things go is important. I'm not always good at that, but still yet, eventually I find my way. I received a test in the afternoon today from a coach at another school. They showed me a flier from the city/county that advertised their community run. It had a cow, it had a cow pun, and was being held at the very park we had challenges reserving. Around the time of COVID, the county enacted some very difficult obstacles to hold a race with the logistics of the Great Cow Run, which made us move it offsite to a school. It's been great work with Glenn as they work hard and the site works perfectly, but for many, the park is ideal. I asked around for help, but nobody did and eventually it was just easier to stay on a campus. I wondered how different hosting a race like this was from hosting our invitational, but with the city and county both sponsoring it, it did make me a bit upset that there were so many obstacles for us, but not for them. On top of it all, their flier centered around a cow and a cow pun, which is what our meet has done since the beginning, when we worked with this same city and county in hosting it. Even in their planning notes, they reference our race, which means they knowingly did this. It's not a copyright or trademark issue as we don't have the money to lock that type of things in, however, it's the idea and morals behind it. To make it easy to host something like this when it's difficult for a school to do the same thing is quite ridiculous. I know it has to do that our meet hosts schools from various districts, which is the biggest obstacle, but still yet, why is it any different than a community race where you have no connection to the entrants? It raises a lot of questions and the number of messages I got made me realize my frustration wasn't unwarranted. They felt similarly. Maybe I didn't push enough, but still yet, I feel as if a moat has been built around our parks, that we can't freely use them anymore without a complaint or call. A few years back, Gahr completed the paperwork to use the park and in the middle of setting up, the city had Gahr take down their markings. There was some miscommunication / mistakes in the paperwork and ultimately, hours before our ace, made us take down the course and I had to redraft a course on the county side only on the fly, which ended up being a chunk over three miles, but allowed us to avoid canceling the meet. We haven't had a meet at the park since. A place where so many of my athletes memories were created are gone, as we've had to look elsewhere as not even our league could figure out a way to get approved to use the park due to the various districts within our league and the steps required. Just like my students, I have to work my way around the problem. We found the solution previously by working with another school to host the meet, as our campus layout made it a little challenging to do so. While not ideal, it became a solid solution and actually has allowed us to build a greater bond with another school. The many hills I've climbed along the way, have often been followed by moments of cruising along. However, the fact that I've faced a number of frustrating situations along the way, I've been better prepared for the next uphill climb, each becoming a little more manageable and preparing me for the mountain that will come. Let yourself deal with the frustration, vent, and then move on. Don't carry the load as it's not worth it. Overcome the frustrations by using it to help you build a stronger foundation for the road ahead. Thank you for listening to me vent and helping prepare myself for the next mountain I'll be faced with down the road.