Oh the gut, that precious thing we have to feed and water constantly in order to survive.  It is also the place many of us have a time that we wished we would have trusted it.  For me that time has evolved into a tradition I share yearly with my 4th graders in our last class together.  Many of these students I have watched grow from Kindergarten, so I choose to send them out with a special message from the heart, and the expressions and comments I get in return sometimes make a grown man speechless!

The story goes something like this, “Thank you all for the opportunity to teach you for all of these years, helping you build your skills has been a joy for me watching you grow into the kids you have become today.  As you grow up and get older people will come and go from your life and some will even try to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do when you grow up.  What many of you don’t know is that I was one of those people who let someone else tell me what my career should be.  From a young age, I knew I always wanted to be a teacher, and with a passion for sports and movement, I knew it was always Physical Education.  But I got older and someone told me I would never get a job unless I taught Math and Science, so that’s what I did.  I started the journey to teach math and science, and let someone else decide my future.  After a short time in college and many talks with family, I knew it wasn’t right and I should have trusted my gut.  From then on I headed down the Physical Education path which brought me here today.  I don’t know about you all sitting here in front of me, but I think I turned out alright!”

The looks and comments have been endless over the years and it always warms my heart knowing my gut was right all along.  Working in a K-12 building I also get to continue to see those students grow up until they graduate, including this year’s senior class who was the first group to hear that story here and some of them still stop by my gym to talk and say hi when we pass in the halls.  Others still come through asking if they can come back to my class because it was always so much fun.  Looking back all those years ago, I realize I should have just trusted my gut from the beginning, but I was fortunate enough to learn my lesson and still succeed both personally and professionally from finally trusting my gut.  Making the realization years ago to trust my gut has given me so many amazing adventures and incredible opportunities. I don’t know what my life would be like had I not listened.  Are you ready to trust yours?

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Nate Cline, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with the following:

Unexpected Detours by Ray Ostrowski

My Why by Charlie Rizzuto

Why I Do What I Do by Henry Opperman

Frozen While Still Moving by Tony Alexander

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?