When I was 16 or 17 I used to drive myself to Boston every Sunday to play in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony. There was this one part of the trip, when I came off an exit ramp into a horrible crossover on/off ramp that shot me onto Route 128. At that moment the sun was always in a terrible place and everyone was going 10 or 15 miles over the speed limit and cutting each other off and the lanes were really narrow and there was no shoulder. It always reminded me of those diagrams in Physics class about amperes vs. volts and what happens when you decrease the size of the "stream" but leave the same amount of water running through it.
At first, I would have a moment of panic. But I quickly learned that the key was to psych myself into thinking that all of this craziness was completely normal. After a few minutes I would settle into it, having ramped my mind up to it, and then suddenly everything seemed slower and wider.
As grades close for the first quarter, I've reached that same place. Kids have settled in, I've settled in, I've gotten used to when I'll grade assignments and what's important to do immediately vs. what can wait. I've gotten used to the crazy pace of life during the school year. I feel like it took longer this year than it did last year, but that I'm much more relaxed this year. I'm more relaxed teaching violin, too, because this year I'm starting to see amazing improvement from students and I'm starting to see patterns in how I teach and what works the best.
Now if I can just get through Nutcracker without another nervous breakdown...although last year it made me discover the Forehead, which ended up being a crucial part of my violin teaching technique. This year I'm hoping to meditate my way through 2 hours of Nutcracker first violin part. If I can do that, I'll really be cooking. High-powered meditation. I think it does exist.