The holiday season is upon us. For most people, it hits like a blizzard tornado, and they find themselves spit out in January dazed, exhausted and bruised. And I understand, because I was like that for many years. Now, with my focus on deliberate choices, I am looking at a different type of December. I will state outright here that I am not a traditionally religious person, but I view December, with its various snowy light-centered holidays, as a time of reflection, planning, and rest. The earth is asleep at this time as the darkness grows and then starts to wane. So can one approach December’s holidays with a sense of deliberate action?

It has now been four years since my very short excursion into the world of education. The wounds have skinned over enough for me to talk about it, and so I wanted to take today to talk about why I am grateful for the worst boss I ever had. I'm going to call it a mid-life crisis. In 2014, I decided that I needed to give back, and so I enrolled in a teacher training course, secured my provisional teaching license in math and started interviewing. I ended up at a job with my local high school, the school where my daughter currently attends. I lasted one year. Education is not for the faint of heart. The first week I dealt with bullying, cheating and teenage pregnancy. Throughout the rest of the year I dealt with hostile parents, violent students, lack of handicapped accessible rooms, and a…