3. Why I Started #Hotchkiss365

I didn't love the fall of 2014. Nothing horrible happened to me that fall, but the bad odor of unhappy changes floated in the air. My school kept coming up with new policies that didn't strike me as good for the students, the staff, or the faculty. (We're in a totally different, better place now, but that's not what this story is about.) At the time, in addition to teaching English, which I've been doing for more than two decades, I was also teaching a few sections in the Human Development Department. What a total joy it was for me to get to talk with kids about why we make the choices we make, what we value, how we can learn to live in community! (In fact, I still get to talk with kids about the same topics in English class, through the lens of whatever literature we're reading, but that's also not what this story is about.)

In my HD classes during one unit, I was teaching the students about positive psychology, how to train their minds to find the good rather than the frustrating/stressful in their worlds. (If you want a crash course, look at this TED talk by Shawn Achor.) Here I was, feeling grumpy most of the time outside of the classroom but showing my students how to feel less down. I had this moment of thinking, "Teacher, teach thyself," or something like that without a "thyself" involved. I decided to shift my focus from what was bumming me out to what I love about being here.

Easy answer: This School is BEAUTIFUL. Every day, I get to walk my dog down to Lake Wononscopomuc. Every day, I get to look from my classroom window to a view that never gets old. We have a stellar grounds crew who keep everything pristine. No matter what policy changes made me cringe, I knew that if I could point my lens at the setting, I couldn't stay upset. My 2015 New Year's resolution was to take and post (on Instagram/Facebook every day for a year) a photo of something at Hotchkiss that made me smile. I started going out of my way to look for smile-worthy scenes.

When December 2015 rolled around, I didn't want to stop for two reasons. First, I had actually started feeling more positive. Second, people far away–both alumni and people who've never stepped foot on this campus–sent me messages saying how much they loved my posts. So on this first day of 2019, I know I'll keep posting my #hotchkiss365 images (though these days, I don't need every photo to come from Hotchkiss) because I have learned my lesson: If I look for what makes me happy, I can find it.

by Carita Gardiner