Extra Innings

You don’t go into the game planning on them.

Less than 10% of major league games feature them.

But sometimes, every once in a while, you’re facing extra innings. You have to dig deep and tap into that internal grit to keep fighting past the regulation nine. To win.

Tonight, my Mariners handled extra innings with skill and style (yeah, I’m lookin’ at you Robbie Cano 😉).

I, however, am not handling my extra innings with such grace.

I’m tired. I’m feeling overwhelmed; but not that familiar, “I’m a busy classroom teacher but I can attend meetings, plan, prep, and teach with my eyes closed even though it’s a crazy amount of work but I’ve been doing it for 6 years so I got this,” kind of overwhelmed.

No, this is new. A new type of busy. So many different responsibilities that are outside my normal repertoire of tasks that it’s taking almost all of my mental energy just to organize and decide how to attack the list.

It won’t feel like this every day. Or even every week or month. This is nothing but a learning curve. One thrown at a cool 77 mph that dove rapidly out of the strike zone just as I was about to connect.

And honestly, it can’t be that bad if instead of working, I spent my evening watching the Mariners in extra innings.

Day 26