choices, and how they make (or break) your day

Hi all,

Happy Election Day.  I hope all of you are voting, exercising your rights as citizens.  I am still trying to figure out how to vote, since today it will require an extra hour and a half of driving to accomplish.  However, it might be worth it.  Anyhow . . . this morning I arrived early to professional development.  1.5 hours, to be exact.  THEN, the first hour of PD was scheduled to be reading the pre-reading, which was 9 pages long.  An HOUR for 9 pages?  I mean, I know we're math teachers, but . . . seriously?  I could whine and complain about wasted time (and, believe me, I did), but I think I can make better choices than that.  It's ok to be upset by things, but letting that drive my actions isn't a great way to go. 

Anyhow, I took full advantage of being early.  I walked across the street to Trinity, waited until their breakfast opened at 7:30, and got a homemade omelette and a smoothie for 6.25.  I took a funny picture of a squirrel on a cannon, and enjoyed the thought that I might be a professor someday.  A security guard was rude to me when I got here early, so I decided to take a stroll on a crisp New England morning, on a fancy liberal arts school and see what their dining hall had to offer.  I could have stewed, stayed in my car or fumed at the security guard.  I could have wasted time driving around Hartford, trying to do something productive or something fun.  Instead, I got all my steps in, enjoyed a window into early morning college life, and had a nice leisurely breakfast.

In short, I'm grateful for the choices afforded me by my upbringing, my lot in life, my attitude, and most importantly the choices I've made.  I could have squandered my privileged upbringing by letting my choices fade me into obscurity.  In some ways I suppose I have.  I'm not that rich, that famous, or that well respected.  However, in my own corner of the universe, I've affected the lives of at least a thousand students.  Probably more.  I hope the effect has been positive, but in case it isn't, I hope at least that I made them think. 

My life's work, I hope, is still in progress.  If I'm lucky and make good choices, maybe I can get this 501c3 off the ground.  Then I can scale up my charity so I can actually get funding for it, and perhaps increase the scale I'm working at so that more people get access to technology.  Currently, through friends and coworkers, I take about 10 laptops per year and donate them to the neediest students at my school.  I'd love to do this large-scale, and get the neediest students in Hartford access to laptops with linux and a way to access the internet.

Anyhow, hope you're having a great day so far, and that you can find ways to turn things to the positive, or find the best parts in your day.

~Mark