After a year which has included the extraordinary learning opportunities of cancer diagnosis, chemo, and radio, and then a stint in emergency leadership, I am taking some leave for rest and reflection – but as always, writing. What’s next?
2023
The unexpected year as I call it, found me unusually prepared and utterly unprepared in equal measure.
It seems the skills learned in managing an Early Learning Centre including connecting, communicating, and creating a vision and a plan for your pathway … are exactly what you need to get you through chemo. It also must be said that the resilience that is in each of us in this remarkable profession can also get you through.
I had thought that having worked a lot under pressure, and frankly enjoying a pressure environment, I would be well prepared – instead, I learned what others see as pressure and what they do in the face of it and that was life-changing.
Unlike so many that I encountered, I was diagnosed very early by a wonderful doctor and as a direct result of her genius, my journey while difficult, was not of the same ilk as that of so many others. Here I am at the other side, now charting my next wonderful journey, when so many others are still there in the treatment cycles, and still running on hope.
In the face of all that was unfolding, I searched for a role in those treatment cycles where I could make a contribution – it quickly became clear that it would be in communication and I began by posting regularly on my Facebook page before moving on to include other platforms. The Facebook page provided a journal for family and friends and as time went on, a picture for colleagues – and in some way, for me, as I sought to find an answer to the question:
“What is it really like?”
It’s an incredibly simple question, and like all the best questions, it has a complex answer full of learning and full of the multiple perspectives from the people and processes that I encountered.
Answering that question for myself and others became ‘Thoughts from the Chemo and Radio Lounge‘.
One post from 27 May told a story that seems relevant for today:
Routines are disturbingly easy to stuff up, aren’t they? Take my treatment day routine. Once a week I leave home at the correct time for the freeway traffic. I have a plan to:
- Start therapy at X time
- Finish by Y time
- Arrive at work by Z time.
In the real world though, the list of things that can get in your way when your life is carefully scheduled is long. The traffic jams, the parking issues, the conversations with the accountant, while trying to find staff, while making an insurance claim, while … well, you get the picture.
That busyness took way too much of my attention this week and it was starting to show, until one of the old men at the radiotherapy clinic noticed that I was flustered and broke the respectful space that we all seem to instinctively give each other, advising – ‘get a coffee, read the paper, and have a chat – that’s what is important’.
So what have I learned, as one person asked in a meeting the other day?
That will take a very long time to unpack, but I know this:
Communication builds understanding, strengthens connections, and feeds resilience.
2024
In early childhood – The journey ahead is still complex and challenging. As we head into 2024, there is much that we need to change, to grow, and to communicate. A Centre Director said to me today ‘Is the profession going to make it?’. The fact that someone with their experience is asking that is terrifying, it is an indicator of the place we are in, and it is exciting in the opportunities that a new direction and structure for our profession may offer.
Doreen Blyth 