When the Armor Gets too Heavy

Special thanks to Google Gemini for generating today’s daily prompt

What does it look like to maintain the work when the ‘armor’ feels too heavy

I’ve spent the last two days battling a nasty stomach bug. I’m finally starting to feel the fog lift this Wednesday morning, but I’m still operating well below 100%. It’s the reason my latest podcast episode, “The 250-Year Clock,” went up first thing this morning while this daily response is only just now hitting the screen.

The Reality of the Red Line

I don’t take as many sick days as I used to. For a few years, I took too many—almost to the point where my pay was being docked. Eventually, I realized that as a teacher, it’s often more work to call off—prepping sub plans and dealing with the aftermath of a chaotic classroom—than it is to just “suck it up” and deal with a sniffle or a cough.

But this week, the “armor” was simply too heavy to lift.

The Armor and the Badge of Honor

I talk a lot about “Teacher Armor”—that mental defense mechanism and “game face” I put on to do my job. We live in a culture, especially here in America, where pushing yourself past the red line is treated as a badge of honor. We want people to notice us falling apart and say, “Look at him, he’s a wreck but he’s still showing up.” The cold truth? If you were to drop dead tomorrow, your bosses would have your job posted before the dirt on your grave had a chance to settle.

We have to know our own red line. There is a breaking point where you are simply too sick, too sore, or too tired to be what is expected of you. This isn’t my mother’s old mantra of “When the going gets tough, quit.” This is about the audacity to recognize that resilience is good, but self-destruction is not.

The World Tag Team Champions

This grind we call life eventually wears us all down. In pro-wrestling terms: Mother Nature and Father Time are the World Tag Team Champions, and the rest of us are just “enhancement talent.” We’re here to make them look good, to make their “bumps” look real—because they are. And they are undefeated.

Sometimes, the armor gets heavy because of a virus. Other times, it’s the mental strain of day-to-day life that becomes too much to endure. Whether the body is failing or the mind is just full, it’s okay to step back. It’s okay to take a breather. The truth is, we often do more harm than good by forcing ourselves to be present when we aren’t “there.”

Knowing When to Step Back

Ever since COVID, I think we’ve collectively started to take illness more seriously. My administration has been supportive, telling me to “just go home” not out of dismissal, but out of care. I’m lucky to share a classroom with a colleague I have a great rapport with; we carry the load for each other because we know we’d do the same in return.

So, I’ll walk back into work tomorrow. But today, I’m listening to my body. I’m unbolting the armor for a few more hours, clearing the horizon, and remembering that moving slowly is still moving forward.

Today’s post is inspired by the WordPress Daily Prompt. While I’ve taken the topic in my own direction for the Road to 1,000 Days, you can find more responses to today’s prompt HERE .

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AI art created with Google Gemini

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