16 October 2007

I don’t recognise myself

Most pictures of me from childhood are instantly recognisable, but not this one, or not to me, at least.

Who is that sparky-looking child with the cheeky grin? The crazy cow-lick fringe marks this out as being most definitely me (that and the very helpfully scribbled, ‘me’ on the back!), but this is not how I remember myself at all.

Recently I have found that I have become unrecognisable to myself in adulthood too - in a good way. October is usually a stress-filled anxiety fest as I struggle to adjust to the pace of a new term and the demands of students. This year I have been astonished to find myself feeling much calmer and have been enjoying my work (as I often do) but without getting caught up in the terrors of feeling overloaded. Perhaps it’s the relaxing effect of having the potager so easily accessible for relaxing bouts of digging. Or maybe I’m slowly working out how to keep things in perspective.

Perspective? It’s when you decide that a cheeky grin is so much more important in life than meeting deadlines!

Filed under: Archive photo — Clare @ 9:10 pm