Start From Where You Are

In a classic example of country sensibility, 1988's Funny Farm depicted down-home rural folk interacting with city folk.

Now, it's important to let you know that I grew up in Vermont. To really define it, I grew up in Funny Farm. Parents of schoolmates were extras in the movie. Local restaurants still have pictures hanging of when the film crew came in for lunch. When those rascally kids cut down the Redbud sign? My friend Adam lived at the end of that street. I still have family there, and I like to think that I still have a lot of there in me (despite my father's claims to the contrary).

I know people exactly like that farmer. There are things locals say up there that I don't hear a lot where I live now. When I went out to the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York for college, I was shamed into losing one of the more versatile words in my parlance - wicked. And for a time, I was wicked upset about it.

One of the more common utterances from the land of my birth (Maine claims it as their own, but I've never been to Maine, and I heard it often in my youth) is:

image credit: http://www.pinterest.com/libbynzeus/maine-humor/

Or, more simply: You can't get there from here.

It's an interesting notion. The impossibility of being able to move to a different place simply because of where one is currently. It speaks to comfort. It also speaks to complacency. It speaks to the hesitation in all of us to face change. And it shows possibly the worst parts of ourselves when we ask those around us to accept that here is where you are, and here is where you should stay.

Arthur Ashe said "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." That's what I want to be, and that's what I want for those with whom I work.

Look at your department. Your staff. Your colleagues. Yourself. How much willingness is there to start that journey toward something new?

"Start where you are." Kory Graham (@korytellers) asked a question recently about feeling like she wasn't getting to those people around her. She wasn't inspiring them the way she felt she impacted those in her PLN. And the only thing she can really do is to get started. The journey can't start until that step is taken. As you get started, you're going to have people tell you that you can't get there from here, but don't forget that those people need to start from where they are too.

"Use what you have." Those of us who are connected feel like we have extra tools in our belt. After all, it's not just me supporting my efforts. It's my entire PLN. We're formidable. I find myself looking at those educators who don't connect through a confused eye. I think to myself, "Self, there's a person who wants to impact students' lives for the better, and he's not getting it done because he's unwilling to use all the tools that he could have." In the meantime, I'll use my tools to reach him; to make him understand that it can be better; to help him become better.

"Do what you can." This is what educators do. We do what we can to help every student. The problem that we face in trying to get these educators on board for their own improvement is that there are too many of them who think of what they can't. They can't create a website, they can't DO Twitter, they can't find the time. Only when we empower ourselves to live with "I can" will we realize that we can make a difference.

So you can get there from here. Now get out there and get started.