Hitting the Heavy

I was walking through one of my new schools at which I am now assistant principal.  The hallways are quiet and darkened.  The janitorial staff is in the midst of cleaning, repairs, and moving all kinds of materials and furniture all over the building.  It still hasn't really dawned fully on me that many young minds and professional educators will fill these quiet spaces in a little over a month.  A small radio plays fuzzy hits from the 70's and 80's and I can hear the hum and buzz of a deep clean vacuum as I sit in my empty little office arranging my calendar for the upcoming weeks.

I am brought back momentarily to my summers working manual labor and building maintenance as a teenager in Juneau.  My manager, Tim, would give me a vague, large assignment and tell me to, "Hit the heavy."  For example, on my first day on the job, Tim told me to go out onto the breakwater and use a hacksaw to cut away as much rebar as I could.  "Start in that area, and work your way along hitting the heavy."  This basically meant get to the obvious, glaring stuff.  Do the hard work first, and later you may come back and get the minor things you mist on the first go-round.  That saying, "hit the heavy", has stuck with me through life.

The last month has taken me far away from this blog as I focus on many different elements in life.  My mother visited a few weeks ago, and spent a few sweet days playing and laughing and enjoying time with us.  It was the first time in over a year that I had seen her, and getting to watch her interact with her grandchildren was beyond special.  It was only an eye blink before she had to leave and return to her life.  Shortly after, however, my dad and sister arrived from Juneau and Washington, DC, respectively.  We took trips into the city, played, read, cooked, laughed, watched movies, and rested together.  It was important for all of us to have these chances to see each other and renew the sense of family, despite our distance apart.

Now we transition into the end of summer, where we look forward to school and finding our way back into our jobs and go about the daily business of being a small family unit again.  We are hitting the heavy as we find what works every hour of every day.  From waking up, to getting to school and work, to me just figuring out what I need to do for my new career in administration and for my family, as well.  There are a lot of little details that we will all have to work-out:  dentist appointments, birthdays, board meetings, and bedtime stories....but those are the little things.  For now, we are all content to just hit the heavy and sweat the small stuff later on.