Some may say I’m a rule follower, but I like to think of it as just doing the right thing.  I mean, some rules just make life easier and help us know what to expect.  But instead of finding myself in a world where everyone wants to make life easier for everyone else, I find a lot of people who are only wanting to make life easier for themselves.  I expect this kind of thing from kids, but a lot of days, just trying to get to the kids can be a crazy game of the unexpected.

For instance, driving to school yesterday was the ultimate game of Frogger.  People were everywhere, on bikes, walking and in cars.  I live in a neighborhood surrounded by three  large schools with about four thousand kids total.  This does not include all of the parents and grandparents driving their kids to school.  Just leaving my place, I had a school bus blocking my driveway, someone going the wrong way out of their apartment complex because it was shorter than going the right way, people not using their turn signals so you have to guess what they’re going to do based on the angle of their car or the look in their eye, kids on bikes who assume you’re going to see them dart out in front of you, kids looking at their cell phones as they cross the street in front of you and not at a corner or crosswalk.  I’m not the most awake person in the morning and it can be quite the challenge.

Even the parking lot where I pick up my donuts in the morning or stop to get gas can be an adventure.  Nobody stays in the lanes anymore as the parking lot becomes a free for all, again with those same kids looking at their cell phones as they meander without checking out their surroundings. Parents stop anywhere to drop off their kids so they can walk across the street to school, teenagers who have had their licenses for a couple of months speed their pick up trucks or daddy’s Porsche like it’s a race track, people park sideways or longways in the parking slots because they’ll only be a minute.

Ok, I’m starting to sound like the old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn, but the truth is, following rules in these circumstances and allowing people to anticipate what’s going to happen can save lives.  I recently had a friend whose husband was in a motorcycle accident because a bicyclist cut in front of him.  He’s ok but ended up scraping off a ton of skin on his arms and legs.  Everyone, walkers, bicyclists and drivers need to follow rules so we can all stay safe.

Then I get to school.  I’m greeted by kids who never look where they’re going so I gracefully dodge them because I’ve been practicing with the traffic all the way to school.  There are rules posted all over school about how to do things safely, responsibly and respectfully but every rule is broken all the time.  I spend my day trying to anticipate, being proactive so that I can be productive in my classroom and so kids can stay safe.  But just like outside of school, sometimes they take me by surprise.  Like the pick up truck who zipped from parking lot to parking lot right in front of me as I was driving down the street last night, I’m not expecting the child in front of me to all of a sudden stop in a line to tie his or her shoes so I can trip over them.

My husband says I’m a good defensive driver which is probably why I haven’t had an accident.  Not to say I don’t make mistakes, sometimes really stupid mistakes, but they’re never intentional.  I often think I’m good at anticipating things because I’m good at reading body language, taking in all of the info I see quickly and making quick decisions with that info.  I see sayings and memes that address how even the bad things in your life can be lessons.  I believe that having to read my mom’s body language everyday and either having to anticipate a problem, deflect things and/or make quick decisions/adjustments helped me survive some days.  Those skills have helped me in all kinds of ways, whether it’s playing Frogger on the roads or Whack a Mole with my kids, to teaching and leading meetings, constantly watching the environment and body language.  It helps me to be safer and a better communicator.  What was a time of fear has turned into a gift of sorts.

So, despite the fact that I would really love people to follow the rules, the truth is that people are people and they’re going to do what they’re going to do.  So in the meantime, I’ll keep trying to teach my kids to do the right thing and play Frogger and Whack a Mole to survive life.