CHECKING IN With gratitude …

With gratitude …

After two years of caution, fear, isolation and indescribable uncertainty, most of us are beginning to enjoy travel, concerts, family reunions, ballgames and unmasked visits with the connections that improve our quality of life. The haze is thinning, making room for more joy, as well as stronger, more thoughtful (vs. reactive) leadership, as explored in this issue.

As we emerge, I am filled with gratitude toward our school business community for creating a sense of belonging, connection and purpose over the past two years. It wasn’t manufactured; it was a genuine reflection of who we are at our core.

And a fun discovery was that in our work, which tends to be serious and focused, humor became a staple of our daily lives as we faced the endless challenges together. While we rarely got to see many of our colleagues in person (from the shoulders down anyway!), we relied on humor as a coping mechanism, not realizing that it’s one of the most powerful forces we have for building genuine connection, self-awareness and well-being.

And if memes are any indication, creativity and resourcefulness abounded too, not to mention many new additions to our language, like “Plandemic.” But above all, it was the laughter that created more resilience to counter our stress as we surfed the waves of uncertainty and absurdity.

As I write this, history is being made as global threats of conflict unfold, posing the most serious threat to democracy the world has encountered since World War II. It’s terrifying … and there is nothing light-hearted about it.

Yet as we face the next waves of uncertainty, I encourage you to take a beat and reflect on the “LOL” moments of the past two years that continue to make us smile today. Keep drawing on them as you carry out the task of evolving education leadership and transforming the work we do for California’s students and schools.

Rely on that humor when you need it. It’s one of our most powerful tools of connection and gives us the fortitude to keep putting one foot in front of the other during difficult times.

Tatia Davenport CEO