BP Partners

Reclaiming Dreams

Coach's Note:

People just get into ruts sometimes. We do not really know why we cannot achieve professional or personal goals, it just seems so difficult. This note is from an individual who struggled with both supervisors and peers in a teaching program. It became so stressful, life long dreams were abandoned. This individual was despondent and struggling with little more than a minimum wage part-time job when Basic Progress happened. Clearly the group dynamic is vital. We do not know yet whether this person will ever teach, but that decision can now be their own. BP is a new beginning.

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Basic Progress is a remarkable program. Those of you that have been through it know what I am talking about. Thanks to Dr. Jay and God, my eyes have been opened to the picture in front of me, I am a mess, a fixable mess, but a mess. Many of you will say, "Duh! We knew that already." I have been unhappy for quite some time and the source of my unhappiness is me. I have been trying to steer my life the way I want it steered and that leads to a brick wall, just in case you didn't know. Tonight we dealt with one specific issue of mine, the whole student teaching debacle of last fall. Coach said something that I didn't want to hear and then told me what he wanted me to do. I treated his words like bad cough medicine. I wanted to gag. But then I took it in and processed it and began to accept it for what it was, the truth. What Coach told me, in short, was that I am a spineless coward who let stressed out teachers define me and my existence and told me to get back on that horse and start over. I prayed and meditated on the way home and decided that that was what I was going to do. I emailed the coordinator at an alternative education site, expressing my interest in teaching about an hour ago. The difference this time is that I am going into it with a new outlook. God is in control, not me.

On a slightly different note someone in BP, not Coach, (I won't say who though so don't ask.) made a very honest observation about me. This person said, and I am paraphrasing, "You know when I first met you I thought you were a jerk, but..." I will not go into details about everything this person said, it isn't important, but the jerk comment struck a chord, in a positive way. It made me realize I have a bad attitude toward life and others and in order for me to be the person God made me to be, that needs to change. Thank you for your honesty and sincerity, it meant a lot. You know who you are.