Support to me means a variety of different things. My job provides financial and emotional supports. It provides financial support for myself and my family and also emotional support to myself because I have the opportunity to do what I love each day. My family provides emotional support to me daily with expressions of love and encouragement and daily conversation and contact. My computers and IPAD provide me with support to pursue my Master's degree and assist with tasks needed for my job. People that I work with provide an intellectual and emotional supportive work environment for me.
Having those supports in my life helps make daily tasks easier and my life more productive and meaningful. I am able to do the things I am doing because of the supports I have in place. It would be very difficult for me to pursue my higher education if I did not have my family support because they understand the time commitment I need for my education. The same rings true for my job as a preschool teacher. My family knows that my job is not a 9-5 job and that teaching is also my vocation and passion. Technology is a wonderful thing and I know I could still accomplish what I need to accomplish with pencil and paper but the technology saves me time which is time I can spend with my family. I would not be happy working where I work if the people that I worked with were not friendly and supportive. That's not to say that I don't work with people like that because I do. However, I choose to find my workplace supports with people that share my vision and passion that I can go to as supports for assistance with the children I work with in my classroom.
One issue that I have been dealing with is my eyesight progressively getting worse. About three years ago, I started wearing bifocals and my contacts are now multifocal. I recently went to the eye doctor for my check up and my eyes are healthy but my prescription changed. I've never had difficulty before I got bifocals with reading or farsightedness. Now I am and I told the eye dr that it is getting difficult for me to read magazine articles and food labels with my contacts. My son is allergic to tree nuts and peanuts and I need to be able to read those labels for him. I have often thought about what I would do without my sight. Not only would I not be able to read with my eyes but I would not be able to enjoy seeing the beauty around me every day with my sight. I don't think I would be able to be a teacher of young children until I could deal with my loss of sight and how to adapt to my environment. I would need a great deal of emotional and physical support from my family, friends and agencies to help me feel productive again. I have watched my aunt lose her sight completely by the age of 84 and it stopped her in her tracks because she doesn't feel like she can do the things she wants to do anymore like read or write letters.
Everyone needs a supportive environment to thrive. When people have support systems in place, it becomes easier for people to adjust and adapt to the curve balls that life might throw them. My life has been full of curve balls but I have been able to get through whatever is thrown to me because of the support of my family, friends and community resources.
Having those supports in my life helps make daily tasks easier and my life more productive and meaningful. I am able to do the things I am doing because of the supports I have in place. It would be very difficult for me to pursue my higher education if I did not have my family support because they understand the time commitment I need for my education. The same rings true for my job as a preschool teacher. My family knows that my job is not a 9-5 job and that teaching is also my vocation and passion. Technology is a wonderful thing and I know I could still accomplish what I need to accomplish with pencil and paper but the technology saves me time which is time I can spend with my family. I would not be happy working where I work if the people that I worked with were not friendly and supportive. That's not to say that I don't work with people like that because I do. However, I choose to find my workplace supports with people that share my vision and passion that I can go to as supports for assistance with the children I work with in my classroom.
One issue that I have been dealing with is my eyesight progressively getting worse. About three years ago, I started wearing bifocals and my contacts are now multifocal. I recently went to the eye doctor for my check up and my eyes are healthy but my prescription changed. I've never had difficulty before I got bifocals with reading or farsightedness. Now I am and I told the eye dr that it is getting difficult for me to read magazine articles and food labels with my contacts. My son is allergic to tree nuts and peanuts and I need to be able to read those labels for him. I have often thought about what I would do without my sight. Not only would I not be able to read with my eyes but I would not be able to enjoy seeing the beauty around me every day with my sight. I don't think I would be able to be a teacher of young children until I could deal with my loss of sight and how to adapt to my environment. I would need a great deal of emotional and physical support from my family, friends and agencies to help me feel productive again. I have watched my aunt lose her sight completely by the age of 84 and it stopped her in her tracks because she doesn't feel like she can do the things she wants to do anymore like read or write letters.
Everyone needs a supportive environment to thrive. When people have support systems in place, it becomes easier for people to adjust and adapt to the curve balls that life might throw them. My life has been full of curve balls but I have been able to get through whatever is thrown to me because of the support of my family, friends and community resources.
Nicolette, I can relate to eyesight getting worse. My eye doctor told me "that's what happens as we get older." I thought way to make me feel better so now I wear readers most of the time. My youngest son will automatically get my glasses when we are about to go over his homework. I'm grateful there are supports every where in our lives.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your post. I would have never thought about my job as being a support or the the tools we use daily at our jobs. I am most appreciative of both!
ReplyDeleteLife is complicated which is the reason why supports in our lives are so helpful and necessary. Everyone has something that they may be dealing with and the supports put in place are their solutions.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out technology as a support. I did not add technology into my blog page but I really would not be able to pursue my higher degree without my computer. I am inspired by your story about your eyesight. This is something people take for granted every day. There are so many people that have the challenge of being blind or deaf that overcome these challenges and I cannot even imaging being left without even one of these things. Thank you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteI loved your view about technology as a support. After reading your blog I got to thinking about how much I rely on technology in every part of my life. Technology is a huge support to me and so many others. Thanks for making me aware of its importance.
ReplyDelete