Thankful Thursday–Advent Edition

I’ve said it so many times, but I continue to love being in the place I’m in right now. There’s only one thing that I could do to make it better and that’d be to have it be closer to home. But alas, it’s not. So I try so hard not to dwell on that part. Because I have the best job in the world. I work with the best people. And every day I see it, more and more.

Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving, but as I said, home was too far away to go. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t with family. It just wasn’t my family, the family I grew up with. I was invited to join Patty Barton and her family for dinner. Patty is not just a co-worker for me, but somebody that I am really fortunate to work with each day. I am grateful to her and her family for allowing me to join them for dinner. I am also fortunate that had that not occurred, I still would not have been alone on Thanksgiving. One of our football coaches, Coach Searson, told me that he saw my truck in the parking lot the day before Thanksgiving and told his son that “he was not spending Thanksgiving alone.” He asked me about my plans. And lastly, my assistant, Sarah, sent me a text on Thanksgiving making sure I had a place to go. We are a family at BL and I am extremely grateful for that. 3 different people who wanted to make sure I had a place to go. I was also invited by members of Patty’s family to join them for Christmas as well, but fortunately I will (hopefully!) be spending Christmas at home.

Family. That means so many things. And at BL, we are a family. We fight. We pick on each other. We share our faith amongst our family. But most of all, we look out for each other and we always want what’s best for each other. We are there fore each other through ups and downs. We are a family at Bishop Lynch. I think that as a school we are even closer than a “community.” It’s an amazing thing.

The other night we had an unfortunate incident happen on the field. As the Athletic Trainer, it’s my job to handle that situation. But it is so nice to know that there are people who have my back. I can’t say that we’ve ever had an emergency situation run so smoothly. From the soccer coaches, to our game administrator, to our security staff, they made my job so much easier because I gave simple instructions and they ran with it. Meanwhile, I was afforded the opportunity to tend to the individual’s injuries while explaining everything to her and to her parents. Once EMS arrived, it was a seamless transition and we were able to manage the incident efficiently. But that comes back to our staff knowing that we all have responsibilities to do and just doing it. Because it helps our family succeed.

Lastly, it becomes more evident every day how Sarah and I have become a very cohesive staff. Our text conversation tonight would sum that up clearly, when we were discussing a patient case and we had the EXACT SAME THOUGHT which is actually something that is a bit out there, but we were both thinking the same thing at the same time. That’s almost scary. But I do feel like she has learned so much from me and I have learned so much from her. We have both adapted our respective treatment habits to meet the needs of our students and to simplify our treatment habits so that they often match each other.

So for this Advent edition of #ThankfulThursday, I am extremely thankful for my #BLFam. Because without them, I don’t think I could be this far from home!

#BLessed