Identifying with Idioms
I speak idiom.
My former students made this apparent to me after I introduced them to these colloquialisms.
I shared that idioms are those figurative phrases and sayings that, over time, become like 'second nature' (idiom) to a culture. Many are rooted in some form of literal meaning but have undergone such exaggeration that they became figurative.
I actually have a dictionary of idioms, (The fact that I have a dictionary of idioms probably should have been a red flag...) and it's quite interesting to discover the origins of idioms.
Take for example: "saved by the bell". We're all aware that it means we're figuratively saved at the last minute from something unpleasant. But it originates in, among other things, the fact that corpses in their coffins were attached to a string that ran above ground to a bell... just in case an error was made. Morbid... and yet so so fascinating!
As I fall back (see... it truly is a sickness) into my teacher/teammate/presenter/creator/Jack of all Trades (just slap my wrist at this point) roles, I've begun overwhelming myself all over again.
I realized that two idioms were ever-present in my mind as the madness of a new school year began to overtake me:
1. "on autopilot"
2. "get the best of you"
As I was quickly jumping from task to task this week, I noticed my stress and frustration levels increasing. It wasn't until Friday that I finally stopped myself at my desk, took a breath, and realized that I was running on autopilot all week.
I fell right back into my old routines of work work work and forgot to pace myself.
I went from noticing nothing to, suddenly, everything all at once.
It was a reality check that I desperately needed; it allowed me to choose my own course rather than continue on the preset that I had found myself in.
When I shut down the autopilot, I also noticed that I was letting a lot of little things get the best of me.
This idiom is frequently found in my speech.
I like the structure of this idiom the best because the word "get" assumes that I had control of whatever situation overtook my mind. I made a conscious choice.
And I did. I subconsciously chose to ignore what I knew would be the overall beneficial approach to each day and each person, and I let the stress get the best of me.
Well, the stress, or the fact that it was a minimum of 92 degrees in my hot box of a classroom... yeah... it was definitely one of those two things.
Regardless of my week in the sauna, I'm glad I took a step back, saw my life in idioms, and gave myself the perspective I needed.
Here's to stopping to smell the roses,
Kristy
My former students made this apparent to me after I introduced them to these colloquialisms.
I shared that idioms are those figurative phrases and sayings that, over time, become like 'second nature' (idiom) to a culture. Many are rooted in some form of literal meaning but have undergone such exaggeration that they became figurative.
I actually have a dictionary of idioms, (The fact that I have a dictionary of idioms probably should have been a red flag...) and it's quite interesting to discover the origins of idioms.
Take for example: "saved by the bell". We're all aware that it means we're figuratively saved at the last minute from something unpleasant. But it originates in, among other things, the fact that corpses in their coffins were attached to a string that ran above ground to a bell... just in case an error was made. Morbid... and yet so so fascinating!
As I fall back (see... it truly is a sickness) into my teacher/teammate/presenter/creator/Jack of all Trades (just slap my wrist at this point) roles, I've begun overwhelming myself all over again.
I realized that two idioms were ever-present in my mind as the madness of a new school year began to overtake me:
1. "on autopilot"
2. "get the best of you"
As I was quickly jumping from task to task this week, I noticed my stress and frustration levels increasing. It wasn't until Friday that I finally stopped myself at my desk, took a breath, and realized that I was running on autopilot all week.
I fell right back into my old routines of work work work and forgot to pace myself.
I went from noticing nothing to, suddenly, everything all at once.
It was a reality check that I desperately needed; it allowed me to choose my own course rather than continue on the preset that I had found myself in.
When I shut down the autopilot, I also noticed that I was letting a lot of little things get the best of me.
This idiom is frequently found in my speech.
I like the structure of this idiom the best because the word "get" assumes that I had control of whatever situation overtook my mind. I made a conscious choice.
And I did. I subconsciously chose to ignore what I knew would be the overall beneficial approach to each day and each person, and I let the stress get the best of me.
Well, the stress, or the fact that it was a minimum of 92 degrees in my hot box of a classroom... yeah... it was definitely one of those two things.
Regardless of my week in the sauna, I'm glad I took a step back, saw my life in idioms, and gave myself the perspective I needed.
Here's to stopping to smell the roses,
Kristy
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