The Lessons Burnout Taught Me About Real Success

Nobody ever thinks that they will be the one to essentially tap out. It's summertime and for educators across the nation, we outside. Now, if you are friends, or a loved one/significant other to an educator, then you know that the first week and a half of summer break is essentially the hibernation period. This timeframe is important because it gives educators a chance to reset and to finally take inventory of what has happened all year.

Now, unfortunately, being that I no longer teach in the classroom, my summer schedule looks a little different, meaning I no longer get the longer summer break but we get Fridays off. I just told my boss that this summer is going to be a stark adjustment because I already know that the highs and lows of this year cannot be recalibrated like previous years due to this schedule change. People might argue, you know, be grateful you get week-long breaks and you get at least some more days than just the federal holidays off. I never said I wasn't grateful, but if you have been student-facing at any point in your life, your nervous system, your mental state, and just your everyday dynamics are completely altered when the regular school year is not in session. Honestly, even though I knew the change was coming, I did tell my boss, yeah, I'm trying to fight burnout. And burnout as an educator looks a little different to me because there are other factors at play than just my job is a lot.

Education is really a space where students are encouraged to bring their most authentic selves, that also brings the emotional labor that's often hidden. And it's not that you're trying to take on your students' experiences, but you know a part of them that is way different than other spaces that they might be in, and you also might be their person. This is why, please make sure if you are friends, dating, or married to an educator that you often check on them, because sometimes when we really wanna be outside, we really need to sleep.

In my role, I manage a lot of programs and projects. Some are heavier lifts than others and it requires a recalibration. That might not make sense to everybody else, but I've learned that it helps me to reset my brain capacity as well as my physical being. It's like, heavier than doing intensive travel with 30 family members. The decision fatigue is real and the irritability oftentimes is at an all-time high, and I have learned how to mitigate my being, but that might not be necessarily true for everyone. I've learned a lot about myself being an educator, and when we really talk about the effects of burnout, I think people really underestimate and judge how much was put into the field of education. Education is already deeply politicized, but after the global pandemic, we saw that more things were implemented for better or for worse. 2026 was probably the first time in the post-pandemic era that it felt like a normal school year. Yet I still feel like we have a ways to go.

I fell apart more this school year than in years past. My first three years, while it wasn't smooth sailing, I had a different level of harmony with what was going on in my world. Yet this year, I felt like all the things came to a head, and while I was still high functioning, it doesn't exempt me from the higher irritability, lack of interest, or the extreme tiredness. I often tell students we might need to go touch some grass, and I realized that even the times where I found solace and solitude, recovering from burnout is a longer process than people want to admit. You might wonder what is or what has been my lowest point, and depending on the day that answer looks completely different. But by the grace of God, I'm still here to fight another day and to live up to the standards in which he has made me.

I concur that the first step is actually stating the obvious: we all might experience burnout, and for my high achieving, high functioning, type A folx out there, we might be experiencing burnout and don't know how to take care of ourselves. I highly encourage therapy, both talk and EMDR, but I also want you to take stock of what is, and what you want your life to look like. Because sometimes, which this took me a while to understand, we are often carrying the expectations, burdens, and conscious/subconscious expectations of those around us. You cannot be everything for everybody, but you need to be everything for yourself. You will start to put things in perspective.

My charge to this community: figure out how to stop burnout for you, how to make sense of your life, and determine what you want it to look like and where you want to go. Make the scary decision, because sometimes the breakthrough is on the other side of the burnout.