Skip to main content

Dreading Interlochen

It's hard to believe that this will be my eighth summer at Interlochen (ninth if you count me dropping off Mark back in 2008).  I'm not sure what we would do with our summer months if we didn't head up north each June.  It's been a blessing in our lives.

This year, I was told that I was being moved to a different health center from the one I've been in for the past three summers.  I never like the idea of change (although I'm usually fine with it once it happens, and this doesn't apply at all to moving), but for me, this was more than that.  When I was moved from JIG Health Center to Boys Health Center three years ago, I was surprised, but a bit relieved.  My supervisor at JIG was really hard for me to handle.  While she is a good Christian woman, she talks a lot, and she talks a lot about herself and her family.  Do you know those kinds of people?  I know that when she asks a general question about my kids, she really expects me to answer in one sentence while she then goes on for ten minutes talking about her kids....and her step kids, and her step kids' boyfriends and girlfriends...and her ex-husband with whom she is still friends.  I don't mind this so much, except that I actually listen, and at the end of an eight hour shift with this, I have a killer headache.  No joke, I leave emotionally drained.

So, the idea of heading back to JIG and to this same supervisor was literally making me ill.  And incredibly depressed.  I just couldn't imagine having to spend five days a week for the next three weeks with her, as well as have nobody at home when I got home.  Everyday leading up to the start of work, I was considering quitting.  John even lovingly offered to just pay the full tuition amount for Glo so that I could just come home.

However, I wanted to give it a couple of days if possible, and while the day loomed closer, a thought came to my head.

I frequently pray that people will change.  I pray that they will see (at least in this case) how tiring or annoying or hard-to-live-with they are.  Or I pray that they will change, or that maybe my situation will change so that I don't need to deal with them.

This time, however, I took a different route.  It's a route that my own husband mastered when he was probably three years old, and that my children probably already know.  It's something that I should know, but being emotionally stunted in some ways, it's never occurred to me.

I decided to pray that I would be able to handle the incessant diatribes of my supervisor, and that I wouldn't be so bothered by them.  In other words, I prayed for my own strength instead of hoping that someone else would be different.

And do you know what?  It's worked.  And not only that, it's worked so brilliantly that this is probably the best situation for work that I've ever had at Interlochen.

Here's an example:

In the past, when this supervisor asked me about my kids, and then cut me off and started talking about her own, I would be frustrated, wondering when I was going to get my chance to talk.  And I would spend the ten minutes while she was talking thinking about what I was going to say and how I was going to get a word in edgewise.  And then, just when it was my turn, she would either leave, or a patient would come in, or something would prevent me from sharing my story.  In other words, I would have great expectations of us having a meaningful discussion, and when we didn't, I would hate her and the situation.

Now?  I have no expectations.  I see Nancy as a child of God who is just trying to do her best in this world.  And too, I appreciate that she has no malicious intentions.  She really has no idea that she is the way she is.

And I'm just fine with it all.  I listen to her for as long as I can, and then I stand up and go do something else.  And unlike me, she takes no offense from that (which I probably would).

It's been a wake-up call for me, and a great learning experience.  And as it turns out, it's been the best summer I've had at Interlochen so far.  I really do love going to work with Nancy and Jay each morning.  Unfortunately, I'm not good "on the fly" and I don't know if I could call on these powers in a situation that I don't expect.  However, I'm glad that it worked out for this summer, and I'm glad that I'm bringing home the bacon so my honey doesn't have to.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...