Life Lessons, Teaching

Don’t Let the Door Hit You (On Your Rush To 2021)

My 7th grade math teacher was named Mr. Jerkovich. Yes, that’s true. And although he wasn’t a jerk, he did look suspiciously similar to comedian Steve Martin, who was the pinnacle of pinnacles during my junior high years.

Mr. J had a dry sense of humor and was a good teacher. Math was never my strong suit, but Mr. J taught one lesson that’s always stuck with me. One day, in a fit of frustration–or perhaps futility–at our antics, he exploded at the class. He angrily shouted, “Don’t you kids realize you’re wasting everyone’s time?! You’ll never get this time back. It’s gone. Never again will you experience 10:11 am on this day again. You’ve wasted it!” Then he stormed out of the classroom, slammed the door behind him and didn’t return for the remainder of the class time.

We sat there in stunned silence.

Perhaps Mr. J had a headache. Or his car broke down that morning. Maybe someone he loved was ill. I don’t know. Maybe he’d just had enough and needed to suck down a cigarette in the teacher’s lounge across the hall. I’ll never know.

But the lesson hit me in the way a remarkable teacher’s lessons does. I’ve never forgotten it.

As we sit on the threshold of 2021, it popped into my memory. This past year has been monumentally uprooting. It feels important to me to pause. Take a moment. Let the last swill of this dark, tragic comedy called 2020 settle a bit. After all, we’ll never get this time back again…thankfully.

I can say with complete honesty, 2020 broke me. There was so much grief, disruption and difficulty. It felt like puzzling through a maze where the walls and dead ends kept changing. People around the world felt heartbreak, loss and grief hang on their hearts.

That, my friends, was one powerful year.

Theosophists and Buddhists state when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I have no recollection what math facts I learned in Mr. Jerkovich’s 7th grade class. I’m sure there were foundations to move me onto the following year’s curriculum. But I certainly remember the lesson that stuck: You’ll never get this time back, so are you gonna waste it? Or will you learn something from it?

Apparently 2020 believed I was ready to see things through a new lens. Things which once seen, couldn’t be unseen. Lessons I wasn’t looking for, but needed. Perhaps you and I shared that experience this year.

Either way, it feels like time to pause. Reflect on what’s happened. Absorb those lessons and remain humbled by them.

While the inclination is to race ahead, hurry up, turn that calendar page, I know only fools rush in. I want to leave 2020 knowing I got it. The door doesn’t need to hit me on the way out. Instead, I want to acknowledge the teacher–that worthy opponent called 2020–and know I didn’t waste its time.

6 thoughts on “Don’t Let the Door Hit You (On Your Rush To 2021)”

  1. Nancy Simpson says:

    What a great lesson to learn. We seem to keep learning the same lesson again and again.

    1. Katie O'Connell says:

      Thank you! I hope to never revisit some of the lessons learned in 2020…!

  2. nancy Gelband says:

    This writing slowed me from the start. Love your visual of “puzzling through a changing maze.” This writing will serve as a wonderful reminder to savor moments and not take them for granted. what a sweet barn/moon quote too! Thank you Katie.

    1. Katie O'Connell says:

      So glad this spoke to you!

  3. Maureen says:

    Powerful lesson and great reminder. Thanks, Katie!

  4. Lisa Cornelius says:

    This is a wonderful (and important) message to tuck in my pocket as I cautiously walk into this new year… Thank you.

Comments are closed.