Beat, Brag

This is going to be a longer post, but well worth it for me...

We usually see the "Brag: Look at this sweet hand!" Followed by, "Beat: I later got sucked out on and broke even for the session." The last two days for me have been the other way around.
To make a very long day short, I just had a bad day student teaching. Maybe it was because the kids were on break last week and still getting back into the swing of things, but there was just no energy, a lack of motivation..no one wanted to do anything. To make it worse, I played a session last night only to have this hand occur:



Alright, I'm still not sure if I like my shove here. I had only been at the table for 6 hands, and this limp, 3bet min-raise has usually been some silly A-rag, or a small to medium pocket pair trying to take pot control. I didn't want to 4bet and have this guy cold call and play the hand with half my stack already in the pot, OOP, so I just shipped it in. This is where the guy hits the time bank. So, now I'm thinking he's going to make some call with 55 or something and show the table how good he is. He eventually calls, and as you can see, hit the Q. He then started to go off in the chat box about how it was a coin-flip along with all this other stuff that....yes...tilted me.
I can honestly say in two months of playing ring, I have gone on tilt twice now. Controlling my emotions is one of my strengths as a poker player, but after my worst day this semester of student teaching, and then to have this happen, it got under my skin. So...who's fault is that? Mine. It's not the kids' fault for not being full of energy, and it's not my opponent's fault for me losing control of my emotions.
I went to bed last night in the worst mood since I can remember. When I woke up this morning, I didn't hit my snooze button like I usually do. Instead, I got ready, grabbed some breakfast, and headed to the school. I was determined to make things change today.
In my six weeks of teaching high school, I have never had a day like today. I changed around my lesson plans so we were constantly at a fast pace. The 7th graders were doing the wave. The high schoolers were in their sections, singing. The 8th grade men accomplished things in their repertoire in fifteen minutes today that we spent forty minutes on the day before, getting nowhere. I was on an all-time high and legitimately proud of myself for being lively and energetic myself, in order for the students to feed off of me.
I decided things would be different during my session tonight as well. I looked at my EV for yesterday, and the entire month, which I know is something a lot of poker players frown upon. Well, I'm taking a stand for myself and explaining why I did this. I needed to know that I played well last night. I needed to reassure myself that I am a solid player, and by making the right plays, I will be dominating this limit over a long stretch of time. Without going into too much detail, I put it in only a one hour session tonight, and it was one of my best ever.
I know days like yesterday happen, but to be honest, they used to happen with me very frequently. My second year in college was a tough one, and I was constantly in the mental state I was yesterday. I hate when those days come out, but I suppose it's what we do to make a change when the next day rolls along.
With three days left in February, I have about 3.2k hands left to make SilverStar. I am also looking at beating 25nl for the month at 4BB/100. This is my first ever really in depth blog post, but I think I needed it. Yesterday is gone. Today is almost over. Bring on tomorrow.