JumpStart Plant Appreciation Day (4/13/26)

QUOTE:  "Patience is not a virtue.  It is an achievement." (Vera Nazarian)

MESSAGE:  As the school year winds down, patience often feels like one of the first things to go. The small frustrations feel bigger. The repeated behaviors feel heavier. And the energy it takes to respond well can feel harder to access.

But here’s an important reframe: patience isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s something you build—and like any skill, it can be strengthened with intention and practice.

One helpful way to understand patience is to break it into three types: interpersonal, short-term, and long-term.

Interpersonal patience is what we draw on in our interactions with others—students, colleagues, even ourselves. It’s the ability to respond to behavior without immediately jumping to judgment. One of the most powerful ways to build this type of patience is through perspective-taking and curiosity. When someone tests your patience, try this thought: What if I’m only seeing 10% of the story? That simple shift opens the door to more compassionate, productive responses. Interpersonal patience grows when we replace judgment with curiosity.

Short-term patience shows up in the moment—when something goes wrong, when a comment lands the wrong way, or when frustration spikes. This isn’t about never getting upset. It’s about how quickly you can return to a regulated state. Skills like noticing your physical cues, pausing before responding, and using simple reset strategies (like a slow breath or a grounding phrase such as “Let me think about that for a second”) can make a significant difference. Short-term patience isn’t about staying calm—it’s about returning to calm more quickly.

Long-term patience is about how we relate to time, growth, and expectations. In education, this is especially challenging because so much of the work we do produces results slowly—or invisibly. When we expect immediate change in areas that naturally take time, frustration builds. A helpful reflection is this: Where am I expecting outcomes on a timeline that doesn’t match how growth actually happens? Often, we are planting seeds but expecting a harvest. Long-term patience grows when we learn to trust the process and measure direction, not just speed.

At this point in the year, patience isn’t about enduring more. It’s about building the skills that allow you to respond with intention—in the moment, between people, and over time. And when we do that, we stay not just effective, but tethered to our purpose and whole in how we show up.

DAD JOKE: Whenever I think of the 80s, I think of a boom box.  It's just a stereo type.