Amen, sister.
I definitely learned the value of hard work last year as I dedicated most of my free time to completing my portfolio to become a National Board Certified teacher. For six months, I poured all my energy and stress into this process, and when I mailed the box off in March, I just about had a panic attack, doubting myself and wondering if I had really done absolutely everything I could to pass. The only time I felt more nervous than that moment at the Post Office was when I sat down at the assessment center for the big test in May.
But what I didn't realize then was even though that six months of hard work was behind me, waiting another six months for my scores would be almost as stressful. Then I finally started getting emails (from the board, from the state of Washington, from the teacher's union) in early November: The scores are coming! The scores are coming! Every time I thought about it, my stomach did flip flops and my palms got sweaty. I woke up early on Saturday November 17 to see a post in my Facebook feed from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. It was only three words--Score are live. I popped out of bed, ran to my laptop, and with shaky hands, logged into my NBPTS account to see this:
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| Blurry because my phone camera is rubbish and I was in too big of a hurry to turn on the lights. But I passed! |
My heart actually started beating harder when I saw the screen. Could it be real? I had to do a few double takes and then sign in and out of my account a couple times just to be sure it was real.
But it was. After all that hard work, I passed.
Sometimes, even when we work hard, things still don't turn out right. But sometimes, they do.
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