Ready for a crazy story?

It starts here: TikTok influenced me, yet again.

I follow a woman on the app called Liza Losing Weight, she has a lot of great healthy meal prep inspo, and one of her videos was of her eating a snack plate with some very delicious looking tuna from the brand Fishwife. I must also add here that the packaging of said tuna aided heavily in the influencing.

So, off I go to Whole Foods, a grocery store I haven’t been to in years because I am a Shop Rite girly, when I hear, “Miss. Neilsen?”

I paused my bumbling and was face to face with one of my favorite former students, who I haven’t seen since he graduated almost a decade ago. I was absolutely delighted. We hugged and spent a little time catching up before he went back to work.

Other notable happenings during my adventure to Whole Foods were: finding an abandoned cell phone in the produce section and handing it over to customer service; and helping a woman rehome her armload of groceries into a basket.

Maybe this story isn’t crazy at all, but there are two things of note here that have stayed with me.

Thing One:

My anxiety has been a bit on the high side recently (Thanks, hormones!), and when my anxiety is high, I don’t necessarily want to leave the house. Initially, the thought of driving to Whole Foods felt big and heavy and daunting because my anxiety was tricking me into believing that a fun errand 20 minutes away from home was big and heavy and daunting.

But even with my anxiety going full throttle, I did the thing that felt hard any way. And guess what? Turns out it wasn’t big and heavy and daunting at all.

Throughout different times in the last 10 years, my anxiety has existed on a spectrum of non-existent to excruciatingly debilitating. I have worked really hard to be able to manage her with therapy, medicine, and a whole slew of tools. But I will never not be proud of myself for doing (and enjoying) the hard thing when anxiety tries to scare me into submission.

Thing Two:

I always love seeing former students out in the wild. And when they call me Miss. Neilsen, I am reminded of a version of myself that I was for fourteen years.

I have so much gratitude for her. For sticking through some hard times when it would have been easier to give up. For showing up as best as she could when she was felled by a migraine or panic attack. For loving those kids as much as she did.

Seeing that student at Whole Foods felt like a reconnection to that life, to those memories. And no matter how old they get, my students will forever be my kids.

That’s it for now. Until next week, friends.