According to a survey done by Shift, “over 38% of people feel burnout” and it can affect their wellbeing and workspace. Talking about mental health and burnout can be a sensitive conversation to have but is necessary to spread awareness. Graphic design teacher, Mrs. Nix, openly talks about how it feels to juggle multiple things at once in her workspace as well as personal life. Currently working at both West and East campuses, she balances her kids and spouse, Girl Scouts role, and other activities. She ends most of her days logged off from her life and exploring what the internet has to offer.
As she plays around with her school lanyard, she reflects on how her high school experience was expansive in developing to who she is today. She says, “When I was in high school, I was in the Student Council, I was in the newspaper like I was in art classes. So I think I was like priming myself to do and be who I am today, right? Like, I sought out those, like, leadership opportunities, or those opportunities to be a part of the decision making process in high school, and that kind of led me to where I’m at in high school.”
Since she has dealt with some of the same challenges in her past and recent years that her students face, she shares, “I see myself, and then I see my own kids as students. There’s one kid in particular at East and he is very quiet, and I don’t see him talking to other kids very often, but he’s a very thoughtful student. I actually noticed that he was eating lunch alone. It made me think about it, so I asked the security guard to keep an eye on him and see if he kind of got some other kids, because that mental health was right, like pulling some other kids that maybe were sitting alone and kind of started a little friend group with them. I wanted to give him the resources that I hope someone at his school is doing for him.” Nix believes that the environment around you, like friends, can be an attribution to your mental health.“I think a lot of it has to do with, like, having a friend. I mean, even if you have one good friend, that’s all that I feel like really matters, right?” she expresses you gotta have that one person that you can talk to and bounce ideas off.”
As an older sister, she knows what it is like to have higher expectations and created her organization skills at a young age. “I remember my mom saying that my brother was a mess and she was like, Well, why? How come that didn’t happen with you, or how come you weren’t like that? And it was because, I think being the oldest they baby him and so they he had a different set of expectations, right?” she says looking back at her younger self. As students, we may think that mental health only exists within a certain age, but that is not true.
“That’s what I look like. Like, I’m just this, you know, like, this extrovert, and I can talk to anybody, but like, there’s moments where you hit a limit, right?” she tells us, “And then, like, I have to go sit in a dark room and, like, not talk to anybody you know. Like, like, your social battery is going off the track. Seems to, like, turn it off for a minute.” Gearing towards her career in art education, she feels that there remains a mental drain in the workspace for teachers. She says, “There’s so many hats that you have to put on that it’s mentally exhausting, mental health wise, for teachers. And I think that’s why a lot of times there’s, like, burnout, or they end up leaving early because they just can’t take the amount.,”
She bravely opens up to what it is to feel overwhelmed with a lot on your plate. She explains, “Well, I think that, like, I hate to be like, right now, but I feel like I bit off more than I could chew. The PTA, I do a Girl Scout troop for my daughter. I run the Girl Scouts in Lombard, like all the Girl Scout troops, and I can’t say no.” Her perfectly lengthened hair sits on her shoulders as she continues saying, “I can’t say no when someone needs help or volunteers my help, but it’s at the expense of my own mental health sometimes, because sometimes I just can’t think of myself anymore. You know what I mean? So I need to learn to say no, because I go, you go through a whole day like this, and then I go home, and then I’ve got three or four hours of, like, something else that I’m doing right. And like a lot of people say I don’t know how you do it. It’s like, I don’t know how I do it either. Sometimes you’re hanging on by a thread, you know?” Mrs. Nix advocates for mental health by spreading awareness online and in person.
With Mrs. Nix, we can feel acknowledged, not just for our physical presence, but for our mental health and state.
