In a few weeks, I will be back in the classroom.

While I am excited to be returning and have been diligently preparing for the year ahead, there’s been some serious issues. For starters, the plan on how schools are going to look hasn’t been established…

Because what has been established is changing (and will probably change again).

There’s the potential the material I have prepared so far might not even be relevant as my schedule could change. While frustrating, it does no good for me to vent my frustrations everywhere and anywhere.

I have to look at what I can control.

One of the areas to become comfortable with is life never offers certainties. In fact, the one guarantee is uncertainty (next to death and taxes, of course) and the one area you can control is your reaction to those times.

While the best course of action is to be proactive and prepare for every possible situation, practicing them until they are programmed (much like astronauts preparing for space missions), there are times when you are just jumping in without any direction.

At that point, what you do is try and just solve the problem ahead of you. Don’t look to the multitude of other areas that you will inevitably encounter. Just the one in front of you.

You’ll eventually get to the other ones later.

Jumping in without direction is actually the best course of action I offer new writers. Just start writing because your first problem to solve is sitting your butt down and putting words on paper.

The next problem they will encounter is how to keep writing until it’s finished. Then it’s putting it out there.

Each one has its own myriad of problems that will show up as well.

While the anxiety of the upcoming year creeps up periodically, I look at it as a new challenge with new problems to solve and new ways to grow.

After all, when you solve enough problems, solutions become more evident.