As the school bell’s sharp ring breaks John Nichols’s train of thought, whispers of conversation start to die down and student’s heads snap towards the front of the physics classroom. Slowly, Nichols rises up from his comfy chair and begins to welcome back his class from winter break. As time passes by, like his students, he cannot help but gaze at the clock hung high up on the wall, its red second hand moving slower and slower with each tik.

Coming back from winter break is not an easy task, but for Nichols, the adjustment is especially difficult. Instead of spending two weeks focused on nothing other than the holidays, Nichols spent over a whole month caring for his first newborn baby, Juliet Rose Nichols.

Now about two and a half months old, Nichols thinks back to when he welcomed her into the world and held her in his arms for the first time.

“I was surprised by just how small she was. I never really held a baby that was zero days old before,” Nichols said. 

As she wrapped her little hand around his finger, her palm looked to be the size of the delicate, rosy petal belonging to her namesake. Because of his wife’s love for flowers, they decided to name their daughter after a beautiful, pink flower called Juliet Rose.

Although Nichols has a lot of fun holding little Juliet, it has been very difficult adjusting to a new sleeping schedule and learning to calm her down when she is crying. 

By leaning on his friends and other teachers with children for support, Nichols was not overwhelmingly nervous and felt very prepared upon the arrival of his baby.

Despite an easy beginning, as Nichols waved his goodbyes to winter break and boarded a train heading to a brand new school year, he struggled with figuring out a balance between Juliet and his job.

“It has definitely been a bit different not seeing Juliet all day every day and just seeing her for three hours or so just before she goes to bed, but it is good to be back and see all of the students again.”

Now that he has a newborn baby at home, he stays up later since he cannot finish his schoolwork until after she is asleep. Other than occasionally playing board games with Mr. Green after school, Nichols rarely has time for other activities since teaching and Juliet are now his top two priorities. 

However, these priorities go hand in hand as his teaching career helps him improve his parenting skills. By observing students interact with each other, Nichols learns patience along with other parenting techniques which he uses with Juliet.

“It is one of those things where you can see that a lot of the times if you are getting a little frustrated, it’s not that the baby is trying to make you upset or doing anything. You just have to kind of let those things happen and just move on,” Nichols said.

Through his life-changing experience of becoming a father and being a teacher, Nichols guarantees that patience is the key to children.

“Try your best to be patient and just keep trying new things if some things don’t work yet,” Nichols said.