From Burnout to Balance: My Sabbatical Experience

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Hello and welcome to the inner workings of the not so genius mind.

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I'm your host, Amanda McCombs, and we're just going to hang out for a little bit.

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We're gonna.

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Dive deep into the ordinary mind, the not so genius one.

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That's me.

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Thank you for listening.

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I'm just gonna say hi and thank you already.

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This has been a really cool adventure to go on.

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Since the last episode, I actually quit my job.

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And the first thing that like anybody says when I tell them that I've left my job, because I was, you know, I guess I still am.

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I'm just not teaching right now because I have a master's degree in curriculum and instruction.

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So, I mean, I worked hard for that and I don't think I'm done, done teaching.

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But anyway, I was at a work conference.

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It was a charter school conference and I had signed up for it before I decided that I wasn't going to go back and teach just because I really needed time to heal.

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And Somebody approached me and like, usually the first thing somebody says when I say that I'm not going back to teaching next school year, which is in like a month, um, they'll ask if I'm okay.

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And no, I'm not okay.

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Honestly.

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I've been through a lot and I taught through it all.

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And I think we've kind of talked like a little bit.

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about some of the things that have happened, but my last episode where I was talking about the stalker, that's like uncovered memories from years and years and years ago.

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That doesn't even include what I just went through this last school year, and the school year before that, where I had the shingles go through my face.

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Still can't feel it.

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Just had an MRI.

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I have no idea what's going on.

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Anyway, back to this work conference.

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I have this lady approach me and she is so sweet.

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She's so nice.

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She comes over and she's like, I hear you're leaving the profession.

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And I was like, well, no, I don't know if I'm like done, done.

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I just, I really need time to focus on other things and I really need to heal.

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And she was like, Oh, you're on a sabbatical.

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And I was like, what? A sabbatical is for fancy people, and I'm not a fancy people.

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It's for like professors and stuff.

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And then I thought about it and I was like, yeah, actually I am on a sabbatical.

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And yo, I even looked it up here on Wikipedia.

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Um, It's a rest or break from work.

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An extended period of time intentionally spent on something that's not your routine job.

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I'm also fostering kittens.

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So if you hear noises in the background, I have kitties running around all over the place.

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Sidebar.

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They're available for adoption at, um, Caws, C A W S dot com, I believe.

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You can see all their pictures.

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There's so many kitties available right now.

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It's ridiculous, but yes, they're, they're running around.

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They were quiet and now they're wide awake anyway.

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So it's a rest or break from work, not doing your routine job.

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And here we am, but it goes back to like Hebrew.

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Agriculture, like in Israel, um, where you had, according to Leviticus 25, we're getting all specific here, Jews in the land of Israel must take a year long break from working in the fields every seven years.

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So, like, you had, you had to take a break.

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And then later, 1880s, um, a lot of universities started offering their scientists and physicians and professors and things like that.

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They would get a paid sabbatical so that they could rest and recover and work on other things and do research hopefully.

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Um, but I'm not taking a paid sabbatical.

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But I am taking a sabbatical because I'm working on resting and healing.

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Um, and taking care of myself is really what I needed to do.

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Cause I wasn't doing that.

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And sadly, I am a first grade teacher and, or I was a first grade teacher and I didn't realize that I wasn't meeting my own needs until I was like sitting down and doing this program with these kids.

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And we're talking about like your hierarchy of needs and.

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You know, down here, I'm teaching this to the first graders.

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Down here at the bottom, um, you have to make sure all your physical needs are being met.

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Are you getting enough sleep? Are you drinking enough water? Are you eating enough food? And if that isn't solid, then everything else is not going to be as good as it could be.

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And I wasn't doing any of those things.

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I wasn't eating.

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Um, I was maybe, I was drinking water, kinda.

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Um.

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And I really wasn't sleeping.

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I needed medicine and I needed to go to the doctor to figure out what medicine I needed.

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And I didn't have time to do any of that.

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So really, um, no, I'm not okay.

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But, but I'm working hard on taking care of myself.

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And, you know, after I had that become a pageant platform for Mrs.

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Daybreak, I kept hearing it everywhere.

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I heard it in TV shows, and I heard it when people were talking to each other, just like, as they would say goodbye, they would say, you know, take care of yourself out there.

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And I, like, my ears would perk up.

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I'd be like, ooh, who's saying that, and why are they saying that? Um, But really like, what am I doing to take care of myself? I left my job so that I could really have the freedom to make all these appointments that I've needed to make.

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So I've started therapy again.

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Um, I'm doing some ketamine therapy, which is life changing.

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I have several appointments a week to go to the chiropractor.

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And I started, I accidentally joined CrossFit.

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That's a story for another day, but that happened.

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And I actually kind of like it.

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Um, and I'm really just like slowing down and really looking at what is necessary for me in my life.

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And what do I not need? Get rid of the stuff I don't need.

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Part of being on sabbatical for me is going to be finding what I enjoy because I kind of lost that.

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I, um, wasn't able, I wasn't able to read books, and just one of the things I'm doing right now is I'm doing audiobooks, and I'm reading physical books.

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Because believe it or not, with my shingles, I could not focus on text of any kind.

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And um, if I had headphones on, it was so I could block out sound.

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Because sound was painful.

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So.

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So I'm just so happy that I'm able to do those things because I love reading.

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I really do.

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Um, you'll usually find me walking around with my nose in a book or I'll have my headphones on or something because I love, I love stories.

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I really do.

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Um, so yeah, I'm going to the chiropractor a lot, like two or three times a week and I'm just really feeling good.

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About figuring my life out because I was working so hard to make a living that I forgot to live.

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And it's, it's just sad.

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It's hard for me because, you know, I wanted to have this perfect life and I wanted to be good at all of the things.

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And on social media, people put their best foot forward and I want to put all the feet forward.

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Why not? Our lives are a mess, right? Um, but I'm thankful that I have it because for a while there, I didn't have anything.

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I felt like my whole world was taken away from me.

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Not being able to see or hear for a while was really, really difficult.

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Um, But I have a lot of emotional things that I am trying to figure out and I have to take care of myself.

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And you guys all have to take care of yourselves too.

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Like, it doesn't have to be expensive.

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Um, And it doesn't have to be big and extravagant.

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Like people think, take care of yourself sometimes.

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And they're like, Oh yeah, I'll go get a spa day.

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And that isn't necessarily like I'm talking about self care.

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That's not necessarily what self care has to be.

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What do you really, what do you really need? You don't need a spa day.

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Maybe you need a body double to come help clean your house.

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Maybe you need to make that doctor's appointment to get on.

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The medicine that you know is going to help you.

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Maybe you need to quit your job like I did.

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I'm not telling you to quit.

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Please don't.

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It was one of the hardest things that I had to do, really.

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Um, I cried a lot afterwards because.

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I love teaching so much, but really, I wasn't at my best self.

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And with how hard teaching, teaching is hard, you guys.

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Um, and I know people are kind of ho hum about it, but you have to make a lot of decisions all day long and there's a lot of pressure.

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And if you're not at your best self and you're trying to do a job that's intense, like teaching can be sometimes.

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It's going to be really difficult.

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It's going to be a lot harder than it needs to be.

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And I think we need to give ourselves some slack because it takes some time to go back to normal.

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And our lives were not normal for quite some time.

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Anyway, so I'm reading really good books.

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These are the things I'm doing to take care of myself.

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Oh, I'm reading good books and I'm snuggling kitties.

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Who's that one? Hold on.

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Whoopsies! Camera's shy.

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Um, I'm taking care of animals because that makes me really happy.

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Like, just find the things that make you happy and do that.

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You don't have to go get a big, huge massage and spend a bunch of money.

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Like, self care does not mean money.

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It can be therapy.

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Which I needed really, really bad.

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And as a teacher, I was like, sure.

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Um, it's hard to have to make all those appointments and stuff.

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And on top of that, the light and sound sensitivity was awful.

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And I really needed some time to figure all that out.

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So I'm really thankful that I'm able to do that.

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Um, because.

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Like I'm, I'm acknowledging how lucky I am because I'm able to do that.

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And I'm able to do a podcast.

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How cool.

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And guess what? My friends and others, whoever you are, if you're not a friend.

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Welcome, I guess.

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Don't be an enemy.

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Um, I have a new podcast in the works that I think you're gonna love.

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Sensitive, it's gonna be sensitive topic, but, um, I'm in the middle of talking to or figuring out how to talk to a group of women that are incredible survivors.

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And I think their stories need to be told.

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So stay tuned.

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There will be more information about that next time.

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Um, please like, subscribe, follow.

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I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.

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That was so weird.

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You can find me at NotSoGenius on Instagram and some other social media platforms.

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I'm also on TikTok and Facebook.

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Um, but in the meantime, I don't know.

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Stay tuned.

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This is kind of fun.

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We'll see where this goes.