This time last year, I had resigned from my job at my old school profoundly disappointed at the failures I could perceive with that institution, and shocked by the failures of managers to protect their staff. At the end of the Easter break, I took a role as a supply teacher and I didn’t know where things would land. I was at peace with myself, with this decision, but uncertain of the future.

Today, I finished a second term teaching at a new school where I am free to teach in the manner I know to be best. I am teaching my subject of passion and feel invigorated as a professional. Management supports and encourages me, and looks after my interests. Although it’s all very hard work, I am experiencing one of the best times of my career.

What it took was having the courage to walk away from a bad situation and trust that something better might be possible. The amazing bit, to my mind, is that the very first supply role I was offered turned out to be at the school that ended up hiring me. As Steven Pressfield comments, when we move on towards our purpose and profession, the universe sends aid.

I know this blog is mostly about roleplaying games but it is also my personal space to reflect. As I have moved on professionally within education, so I have also moved on within my hobby. I have found passion and energy return as the baggage I was carrying from work has been discarded. We are fools to separate our lives into compartments because we are, in reality, holistic beings. The one influences the other.

A year on, I am still exhausted from school but it’s a different kind of tiredness. There is joy and hope instead of anger and despair. This spills into my gaming, helping me to release creative energy and passion with the students and with friends. Here’s hoping this coming year will be just as positive and that I can maintain the momentum.

Game on!