My "REAL" Job

since my last blog i've really been trying to downshift into a much slower, much less stressful gear. last year sucked so much of my life force out of me that, while i have more to do this summer than i could possibly manage, i've been trying to really take the off time and soak it up. sure i've gotten plenty of teasing and some snide comments from my buddies in the corporate world about how those who are doing "REAL" jobs actually have to work all year long. now, i could get mad at that but alas, all i do is smile because i know something that they don't know. in their ignorance of what we teachers do they don't realize that my students would absolutely eat them alive! most cubies and corporates couldn't manage a week in my classroom. unlike my misguided and misinformed loves in the "business" world, who comment on jobs they know nothing about, i was actually in the corporate world for 2 very long years prior to changing career paths. in that time here is what i have learned.

you say you wish you had a summer off? so do i! there are only 2 or 3 weeks that i am not doing something school related. that's about the same time i had off when working in the corporate world. you wish you had a summer off? i wish i could take an hour to an hour and a half lunches every day OUTSIDE the building instead of scarfing down a sandwich while talking a student, making copies and checking e-mail all in the 25 minutes i have allotted for lunch. you wish you had the summer off? i wish that the moment i walked in the door at home i didn't immediately have to eat a quick dinner, barely get to spend any time with my husband, grade 80 essays (no exaggeration by the way) and plan for 2 different classes for the next day and put a pep rally together. you say you wish you had the summer off? i wish i didn't have to break up fights in my classroom, teach students that have absolutely no respect for anyone or anything, much less in what i'm trying to teach them, deal with cheerleading parents who want the superintendent to fire me over what kind of ribbon i made them wear in their hair on friday night. speaking of friday nights...where are most of my corporate buddies at 7:00 on a friday night??? that's right....you can say it...at home. where am i...starting my second job as the high school cheerleading coach which will allow me to get home around 11:30 that night.

seriously i could go on for hours but i'm sure if you're actually still reading this you are bored out of your mind by now. i do want to say though by writing this i mean no disrespect to anyone who works in the corporate world. it is an absolute rat race out there and it's so very difficult. everyone's job is difficult. they would call it something else besides work if it wasn't. i'm just simply pointing out that being a teacher is every bit of a "REAL" job as any other. coming from the corporate world myself i can say, without reservation, it is the hardest thing i've ever done in my life, and while it sounded like i was complaining, there is truly nothing else i'd rather do. i get to teach someone the beauty of discovery. i help them achieve things they never thought they could. i help them push past obstacles they never thought they could overcome. i'm a shoulder to cry on, and a friend to laugh with. i actually have those privileges, ones that were never afforded to me in the corporate world and ones that provide more joy and more pain than i could ever have imagined and it is a beautiful thing. it's alchemy and i am thankful. but with all of that comes a mental and emotional drain that only a fellow teacher can understand. without the few weeks we have off, our souls couldn't survive it. at least mine couldn't.

so...my wish would be that we call all be respectful of each other's jobs and never allow assumptions to belittle the truly amazing things we do in our individual workplaces everyday.

oh, and if you can, hug a teacher today!!

peace and love