Living Among Giants

The title says it all. I will speak of myself, but my hope is that you will relate. I know that I live in a world among giants. This is nothing new, but often I read things that aid in clarifying an idea for me. I just finished reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell and this book has helped to put words for what I already knew.

I realized that just because I am David doesn't mean I can't conquer my Goliath's in this world. The biggest giants I face are at work. If you are in the field of education you are David, no doubt about it. If you know the story, you know that David, despite his size, beat Goliath much to everyone's surprise. It doesn't matter your job title or the number of degrees you have, we all face giants. Currently, I am faced with several giants, but I am slaying them one at a time. It amazes me that education is one of those fields where everyone outside the field of educations knows more than the educators charged to make the decisions. Just because everyone went to school doesn't mean you know how to run one effectively. Times change and just because it worked when you were in school my questions is, "Do you really think those same practices will work in 2014?" Look at this new generation of students, technology, accountability, testing, you name it. Our society has changed tremendously.

We (educators) are charged with the biggest responsibility and that is to educate our young people. There is no room for favors or politics. Are we doing what is best for children or what is best for adults? Too often we make decisions based on what's best for adults. How backwards is that? Does it make sense? It doesn't, yet there are those that continue this practice and want everyone else to follow this same path as well.

I am passionate about what I do, and I will continue to be an advocate for our children that are often an afterthought. It is unfortunate that because I believe in putting children first I have to fight daily just to do what is right.

My minister has said that sometimes you have to go through storms to increase your faith and I believe that because I am definitely in the midst of a storm, but I am holding steadfast in knowing that I will come through this storm stronger and victorious. Often we are held back because of obstacles in our paths, but I know that God has given me the potential to overcome any obstacle, so I will continue to put in the work and reap the rewards in due time.

aWordfromSmith

Standstill

I have come to a standstill with my hair and I don't know what to do. I am at the point of needing a change. I feel as if I am stuck in length and hairstyles. My hair doesn't seem to be growing and I'm not certain what I'm doing wrong. I definitely keep it cleansed by washing it every two weeks. I clarify it with ACV once a month or more if needed to aid in ridding my hair of product build up. I can say that 95% of the time my hair is in protective styles. I deep condition almost ever time I wash my hair. I have read conflicting messages about trimming so I do so sparingly.

Last summer, I had Havanna twists installed and I think I either kept them in too long or I can't do synthetic hair. Either way when I took them out my hair wasn't a strong as it was before I had them put in my hair, so I may partially be still recovering from that fiasco.

Currently, I switch between two strand twist, twist outs, and bantu knot outs. I'm bored with these styles. I want to straighten my hair, but I have read horror stories about heat damage, so I decided to wait until I find a natural hair stylist that I trust to straighten it or I get the nerve to try it myself.

This is my 40 year so I am all about go big or go home so to change things up a bit perhaps a nice cut would help. I don't really care about length but I do want healthy hair. Hmmm....change is a coming.




aWordfromSmith

20/20

   I wrote this on 12/29/13 (late post).
 
     Exercising is bad for your health. That's my story and I have the scars to prove it. Kidding about the health, but not about the scars.

     On the road to becoming a healthier me, I started getting up each morning at 5 am to go walking/jogging. Tuesday morning, August 20, I didn't want to get up and contemplated not going except I knew the next day I had to attend a meeting out of town and wouldn't be able to run so because I didn't want to miss two consecutive days I forced myself to get up. You know how they say hind sight is 20/20, well I wish I had followed my first mind and stayed in bed.

     My run started like any other day, the weather was actually cooler. We passed the two little old ladies on their routine morning walk and as I was finishing my first lap I looked to the right for Mr. Owl that I call "Old Man Owl" because I swear he sounds more like an old man than an owl and then it happened. I tripped over the reflector in the road and went sprawling on the concrete face first. Ouch! First, I was in shock. My husband turned around and helped me up and I hobbled home. Luckily, we were only two houses away. I could feel the blood running down my leg and my chin was stinging. I entered the house and sat in the chair as Rod ran to the back of the house for the first aid kit. He flipped on the light on his way to the back of the house. I look down to see the damage and I screamed, "ROD, THERE'S A HOLE IN MY KNEE!" He was so freaking calm that it was unreal. Once I saw the hole I grabbed the garbage can and threw up. I don't have a weak stomach, but something about seeing a hole on my body where there shouldn't be one did something to me. Ugh! Needless to say after this we got in the car and headed to the hospital. Little did I know this was my first mistake. Yes, first. The accident was bad but going to the hospital in Natchez was worse.

Picture taken at hospital

     I didn't know until after I kept having issues with my leg that I shouldn't have gone to the hospital. Everyone I encountered said, "I never go the hospital in Natchez" or "I don't see any doctors in Natchez." Really? Who knew? Hospital, emergency at 5:15 am ummmm...what was I thinking? Well, the ER doctor did an X-ray but I later found out that he didn't clean my leg and he shouldn't have stitched it they way he did. I found this out three doctors and one nurse practitioner later.
     My issues were endless and I won't bore you but I will share the graphic pictures and you will understand. To put this in perspective for you, I ended up having two different pain medicines, two different shots of antibiotics, t, a tetanus shot, and two creams. I feared an infection and I did end up with a low grade staph infection.

I can tell this story better with pictures, but just know that they are a bit gross. You will see pictures on the progression of my knee. One picture you can clearly see the stitches that were left in my knee by the E.R. doctor. After my initial fall and stitches the E.R. doctor said I could come back to them and have the stitches removed. Since I didn't have a doctor in my area I decided to return to the hospital in ten days as advised to have them removed. The removal was painful and he didn't even clean it. He just cut them out and sent me packing. Really?!? Needless to say once the guck cleared out you can clearly see where several stitches were left in my knee. I went to a nurse practitioner next and she found three stitches that were left in my knee.

About a month later

Okay so the hole got progressively worse before it got better.

Day 1 (with stitches)

One week later

Sorry for the pictures being our of order but for some reason they didn't want to cooperate. The main thing you see is how much I went through with this knee. I won't share the amount of money I spent on doctors and finally having to travel two hours away to Jackson to have a new doctor (and final one) aid in the healing process. I will end by saying I fought with the pavement and the pavement won.

aWordfromSmith