Poor Man's Polaroid

A rather uncomprehensive summary of the last 6ish months

Aug 05, 2025

If I stay true to the normal formula of this newsletter, I ought to be distilling the events, thoughts, intake, and creation from my life since the last newsletter I’ve written… which was back in January. Too much. Hence I’ve kept pushing this thing off which has only exacerbated the problem.

This post is to regain momentum and restore the intent for regularity moving forward.

Here’s an inadequate recap of the last months.

Standouts from the First Half of 2025

The school year ended nicely. The sophomores I taught back in 22-23 all graduated. It was fun to see them grow up and start the next chapter of their lives.

To be honest, I overworked myself this year. It all caught up to my body during spring break. I got the most sick I’d been in a long time: a multi-day fever that wouldn’t break. This led me to miss almost a full week of teaching. I’ve been trying to pre-game a bit for this upcoming school year to set myself up for greater balance. I am, however, planning on trying a lot of new structures/strategies, so we’ll see if “balance” remains elusive per usual.

I’ve been doing more reading this summer than I expected, less writing than I intended.

I’ve been sitting on my porch a lot.

Other fun things:

Presented at a few conferences
Family trips and reunions
Drove the esports students to their state championship and watched them win
Dislocated my shoulder while dancing at a school event
Camping
Lake swimming
Reading in the park with friends

Poor Man’s Polaroid

I picked up a little camera at the start of the year. It prints photos onto receipt paper. I get the fun and tangibility of polaroids, but it’s not nearly as spendy.

I take a photo every day to document my life. Like BeReal, but cooler.

Because the photos are tangible.