Those Days

Some days are so long.

Some days, you start work as early as 7AM, mentally choreographing a number for the spring musical by listening to the song on your I-Tunes, while you dry your hair and put on make-up to get ready for the day.

Some days, the school copier breaks down. And you have to get REAL creative, REAL fast to revise your lesson. And then sometimes, the copier gets fixed at the very last second, and you can carry on after all.

Some days, you can rhapsodize about Shakespeare, and the history of medieval and Renaissance England, and tell students about your own performance on the Globe theatre stage in London, and they listen, and they laugh, and they sit up and look at you with bright eyes and grins on their faces, and you feel so good.

Some days, the kids are great about doing an in-class assignment, and they work together, and you feel awesome about their progress.

Some days, you and your mentor-teacher read "The Merchant of Venice" out loud to your students with especially silly, exaggerated voices, and the kids giggle and follow along.

Some days, you have to end regular school by rushing off to grad school, and prepare for a big presentation in front of your other grad school cohorts.

Some days, the presentation goes great. You play your guitar, you teach your classmates a song (sung as a ROUND!) to describe your teaching philosophy, they all sing, it sounds great, and people tell you afterwards that they loved your presentation especially.

Some days, you go home wanting nothing more than to just get into your pajamas and watch a mindless sitcom.

But some days, you can't rest yet. You have to finish choreographing that musical number by scratching out notes in a script while eating dinner.

Some days are awesome. Class goes well; grad school goes well; you've prepared for tomorrow, and you feel GOOD about life as a teacher.

But some days... leave you EXHAUSTED.

So some nights, you're in bed by 9:30PM. And on those nights, it takes you less than 10 seconds to fall asleep.

But those are great days.

Those are really great days.