Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my job...but there are times when the bubble I blew in that first paragraph gets totally burst and I find myself saying and doing things MY teachers used to do and I swore I'd NEVER do...Liiiikkkkeee...raising my eyebrow to my students (a'la Mrs. Bowden) or "yesterday when we left off..." (close to Mr. Fuerst's "Last...Yesterday") or the ever popular "would you like to share that with the rest of the class?" (akin to EVERY teacher I had who put the comment socializes too much on my report card).
I digress...once upon a time ago a girl graduated from college and looked for a job. She found one in North Bend and applied but she didn't have any team teaching experience. The only other job she found was a High School in Yakima. She'd never taught high school...and still felt a little too close in age...plus Yakima was a long way away. Well, she thought, that's okay...I'll just work at East Valley High School for a year or two until something closer comes available.
So for nine years she drove 500 miles a week to work and back. This girl who'd sleep til way past noon...who couldn't make it to her 8:00 History 102 class even when she lived on campus...who once made her mom break open their back door because she'd slept walked and accidentally chained it shut...left her house every morning by 6 AM to get to work. This girl never saw the light of day from Monday thru Friday during the winter months as it was dark when she left for school and dark when she left for home. This girl sometimes drove as slow as 40 or 50 MPH when road conditions worsened...for nine years.
Then one day a job came available...a mere two minutes from her house...and she took it. It would be an easy transition...she *thought*. She'd never lived in East Valley; she rarely did staff get-togethers because she'd always get home too late. It was *just a job*...or so she thought. The new job started and she missed her colleagues...and the more she missed them the more she realized that unbeknownst to her...over the last nine years...they'd become so much more than colleagues...and this job had become so much more than a job until something closer comes available.
Fast forward to tonight and my hometown gym is host to the East Valley Red Devils...so many of the Varsity girls and boys were my students over the last 3 or 4 years that they'd been at the high school and a part of me still considers myself a Red Devil. I found myself looking with disgust as they missed their shots or muttering under my breath that they were better than this. It was definitely bittersweet. But it also made me so appreciative that my very first job was SUCH a good experience.
The distance will get easier...those students of mine will eventually graduate and I'll no longer know any of the EV kids at all...but for now...it helps me still feel a little connected while I'm still healing from the loss of my first great job!
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