Control: Fish Swimming In A River

For my first post on this blog, I decided to share with you some words I tell my 3rd and 4th grade students, many of whom have already had way too much rough stuff thrown at them in life:

We are like fish swimming in a river.  We can't control what the river does.  Maybe it will be stormy.  Maybe it will be sunny.  We can't control what the rest of the fish do.  We can control how we swim through the river.

Life is full of stuff you can't control - big stuff and little stuff.  Sometimes you have to move or people get sick or accidents happen.  Sometimes other people do awful stuff.  It's scary to know there's so much you can't control.  But you can control how you react to that stuff.  You can control whether you ask for help.  You can control whether you treat others with kindness.  You can control whether you keep trying or you give up.

Swim with strength and courage.  Find other fish you can trust and swim together.  Swim to the calm places when you need a rest.  Explore.