Day 60 - 1st March 2025 I spent some hours with my very first boss this past week, 23 years after I left her employ. She’s the founder of the nursery school (it is no longer just a nursery school, it has grown in leaps and bounds) I taught in right after high school. News flash: I taught in a nursery school for nine months before I gained admission into the University of Ghana. I’ve written about her and that first teaching experience in the introduction of my next book (stay with me on that). I was a co-teacher to a class of 4 year olds 😅 and the best part of my day was the end of the day when I was heading home 😂…it was no easy task but I loved my students and I was happy to have a job. My meeting with her was warm, relaxed, friendly, we laughed a lot and she shared with me some of the developments in the school. She’s built the school organically over a period of 32 years. We reminisced some of my favorite moments when I was there and I was awed by how different the infrastructure was. I remember walking away from that job so excited that I was heading to school and won’t be back! Because even though I loved the cash and the free lunch and the free ride to work most days (she used to pick me up…yes I was specially privileged 😁😁), and my kind boss and wonderful colleagues, it was hard work managing toddlers. But I did it for 9 months and now I’m happy I did! I did it with my best self. I didn’t complain about the headaches at the end of the day or the extreme fatigue I felt when I got home. Whew! That was like having more than one of my almost-4year old son in one room and I was managing all of them at the same time! I formed a great bond with the other teachers and helped them do all the extra stuff they needed to do…I was also the reading teacher, using picture cards to teach the children how to read. And guess what? All of that helped build my work ethic, my character and has brought me to this point I am now. Today, I proudly say, I am a good teacher even though my first teaching job was hard, it set the tone for everything else. You may be doing something now that you feel is too hard and you want to get away from it. I now have the benefit of hindsight and so let me make a suggestion to you, look at it as a stepping stone in your journey. Picture it as a piece in a bigger picture and give it your best. It will all make sense eventually. Happy new month! 📸February 2024. First mentoring event with cohort 1. Bernard Brown Snr shot what I consider a beautiful picture of a teacher 😁