Every day is a new beginning. I didn’t start understanding and appreciating that until I started teaching, but this isn’t something that just applies to teaching.

When I was student teaching, my cooperating teacher told me that every day is new. That’s such a cliche saying. But then I watched him practice that. He never called out students for behavior that didn’t happen that day.

I’m now in my second year of teaching. I’ve got my feet more or less under me, and I’m figuring things out. I take ideas from different teachers I’ve either been a student under or worked with. But this philosophy is one of the most prominent that continues to stick with me.

I had an incident happen in my classroom a couple weeks ago with my students disrespecting each other, and me by extension. I lost my cool and yelled at my students. I was fuming and seeing red. It wasn’t good. But I was just at my limit with the amount of disrespect that was happening in my classroom.

That was a Thursday, and my school is on block schedules, so I didn’t see those same students again until Monday. And I was very direct with them and told them in no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable.

And while things haven’t been perfect with that class, they’ve been better. I haven’t had to yell at them as much. And I don’t bring it up to them again. I trust that they’ve learned and some of them definitely have. One of the students who was involved has definitely shown improvement and I’m proud of him. I can usually dissuade him from doing anything rash with a gentle word and stern look.

This doesn’t just apply to teaching. Every day is a day to move forward. Some days, work is too stressful. Other times, I feel like I can’t get everything done that I need to.

But every day is a new beginning. You aren’t in the same place you were the day before. You’ve learned and grown. You’re never too old to do something or to learn. You can always start again. You can always move forward.

The thing that it boils down to, in my opinion, is choice. Are you going to choose to move forward and give each day the chance to be a new beginning, or are you going to get stuck in your rut? Every day is a day to change your life. But if you don’t accept that change, then it won’t be a new beginning.

I believe one of the biggest excuses not to have a new beginning is age. But you are never to old to change jobs, go to school, find love, learn something new, or anything else you want to do.

Every day is a fresh start. This also includes things like emotions as well. I’ve had my share of bad days, and I know that more are to come. But that doesn’t stop me. I do my best not to let my emotions carry over into the next day. I would rather start the healing process and getting into a better circumstance. I have spent time harboring the negative emotions that comes with bad days, and I’m tired of it. It just makes it that much harder to come out of it and to start getting better. Every day is the chance for a new beginning if you take it.