I think as of right now, the college process for me will require a lot of patience. To reduce this stress I’ve been trying to break down the steps into smaller chunks so they are more manageable.

There are a few things that require my patience, my students for one. Understanding their journey especially through this challenging time remote learning and living through a pandemic as a teenager helps. I keep my mind and my heart open so I can help them as much as possible. It can be stressful because there is lots of work involved.

I think what requires the most patience for me is math. Because I am in an accelerated course, I get a lot more work and much harder and more challenging problems, concepts, etc. I have to build better study habits and allot time to focus on math every day, even if I don’t have school or math class that day.

To reduce the stress from this subject, I think I should split up the work on a day-to-day basis and spend time really grasping everything so I can understand and apply the problems and concepts. Memorization is one thing while understanding is another. I need to be able to understand the concepts better than I am now because my grade reflects my understanding.

It’s so interesting to note that about half the tribe cited school-related work as demanding considerable patience and causing much stress while approximately the other half the tribe stated that it is stressful and takes much patience to regularly interact with people—particularly the youth.
As an educator, I deal with young people and schoolwork all the time, but it’s technology that truly tests my patience and makes me do breathing exercises to avoid getting heated.
Here are some recent examples of my trials with digital devices…
1) Of late, when I attach my iPhone to the lightning-to-USB cable in my vehicle, activate CarPlay, and attempt to use a GPS app, I can’t silence the radio without also silencing the voiced directions. I’ve missed off ramps and other turns on unfamiliar stretches of highway because the radio drowned out the narrated navigations. SMH 🤦‍♂️
2) My wife’s phone keeps sending unsolicited notifications about where to get vaccinated. The messages state that she has appointments even though she’s never made any. WTF 🤬
3) The alarm on my regular, old wristwatch (not a smart watch or anything) went off at 2AM the other night and I fought with the four protruding buttons (one of which does nothing but light up the face of the watch) for almost 20 minutes until I deactivated the damn alarm, which kept going off every 60 seconds.
4) I can’t stand automated customer service systems that keep me in an endless loop when all I want to do is talk to a real person/representative.
5) On my previous vehicle, the car fob wouldn’t start the engine from a distance unless I held it just right and used the force like a Jedi Master.
I chose not to get the remote start for my current ride. No surprise, huh?
6) My blood boils when the WiFi won’t allow me to access the digital coupons while I’m in the department store.
7) What’s up with Zoom sessions that “kick out” attendees at random?
8) Who’s responsible for glitchy Adobe Flash?
9) Tech moves too fast. I hate having to buy dongles, adapters, and external drives because computers no longer come with several different ports and headphone jacks, CDs and DVDs are almost obsolete
10) I have one word regarding the issues connected to social media, YouTube and the like… EMP.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not tech challenged or wish to return to the Stone Age, but mishaps with computer circuitry cause me to experience too many moments of eye-rolling, sighing and sucking my teeth.
Just sayin’.