On Saturday evening I packed my items back up for the return trip to New York. This has been a really great trip for a number of reasons, and, when I headed back up to my room after dinner that evening, I had to get myself in the right mindset to travel back.
This meant I had to make sure that I had everything ready to go. Along with packing, I arranged everything along the TV counter to make sure I wouldn’t forget it, and I got all my toiletries in order so that I had everything I needed for the evening and the morning, and could pack the rest away.
I always tend to be a little nervous that I’ll leave something behind. That often means I check, double-check, and triple-check prior to leaving a hotel room, even going so far as to check under the bed, despite the fact that I know that nothing would have gotten under there.
In fact, I’m not even sure if I’ve ever actually left anything in a hotel room. For some reason, I’m just worried when I’m outside of my own place and space, something that we can all relate to.
In our professional lives, we see this playing out as well. Sometimes we have to move rooms to teach (sometimes, we don’t even have our own room), which throws us off environmentally. Different spaces have different considerations, and we must be cognizant of our colleagues who find themselves in these situations.
The same is true when we welcome new students into our space. Not only is it a change for the new student, but a shift for those in the class as well. All learners come with their own baggage, and whether that baggage is good or not, we take it with us. Even though we consider it good to “have everything” we must also remember that when the baggage is bad, having everything is a challenge in itself.
Some things we can leave behind, and others we can’t. Regardless, it is important to recognize that we have lots to bring with us, and therefore we need to make sure we always keep it in mind as we go from place-to-place.