Bottomless Drinks on a Football Saturday

Trying to post on a blog during the week as a first year teacher is like trying to stand up straight after drinking excessively. You really want to be able to do it, but realistically, it's just not possible.

Last weekend, including my first mental health day on Friday, I traveled back to Georgia to surprise my family. Dad and Morgan, brother's girlfriend, were the only two who knew I was coming. After a lot of screaming and excitedness from my mother, I had a fabulously relaxing weekend. I didn't worry/THINK about school, which was such a nice change from my past few weekends I have had.

This week I was not stressed, was getting things accomplished, was getting a some-what normal amount of sleep. And then, Thursday rolled around. Whoever decided that high school students should have a televised football game on a THURSDAY night needs to seriously be punched in the face. We had a pep rally during second period, and the rest of the day was crazy. Students were more excited about the game than learning about social stereotypes in my fourth period class. Needless to say, Friday was just as big of a crazy. In my personal opinion, let's keep the football festivities to Friday evening.

So, yesterday, a couple of teacher friends and I decided we were going to crawl out of our hermit-ness of grading papers to go sit at Wild Wings Cafe to watch some college football and grade papers.

Now, if you have ever been to Wild Wing's, you know that they have a very extensive menu with great bar food. It also has, much to my friends and my delight, 10 dollar bottomless mimosas on football Saturdays. At first, I had debated ordering a stadium cup of some form of light beer. But the more I thought about, why would I pass up an opportunity to drink as many mimosas as I wanted while watching football, grading papers, and gossiping with new friends? It was the epitome of being a first year teacher. But, it could not have been more fun.

And to put away the worries, we sat at Wild Wings for about 3 hours, drinking lots of water before leaving.

Teaching and College

As I sit waiting for mother to arrive for a weekend visit and procrastinating on all the work I should be doing, I have come to a very truthful realization.

Teaching is college on crack.

In college, you write a paper or essay nearly every week. As an English teacher, you grade papers every single day. Not just a couple of days. EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

In college, you are sometimes tired because you have to wake up for that 8 AM class that you have to take in order to graduate. As a teacher, you wake up early Monday-Friday and go to bed at ridiculous hours of the night trying to get all of your work done.

College allows you to drink all you want to in 4 years. But it's okay, because you're in college. Teaching can lead to alcoholism. I have not yet turned alcoholic because I am far too exhausted to think about drinking.

In college you plan your courses and you plan for internships and other things of that nature. As a teacher, you plan and plan and plan, and still don't necessarily feel prepared for the next day.

College brings you game day. Teaching brings you Friday Night Lights.

You pay to go to college and, because of this, you are usually broke. You get paid to teach, but because you're an adult, you are even more broke than you were in college.

I seem to be complaining about being a teacher. This is false. I am not complaining about my job. I love my job. But I definitely miss college. Anyone else who had a similar college experience to mine would also miss college. But I have a job. And I'm an adult......at least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Welcome to the Whirlwind!

The past month seems to have flown by. From getting a job, finding a place to live, moving, and starting my first big-girl job, I have hardly had time to think! Backtrack to May 7, 2010.

I do not feel like a college graduate. It still amazes me that I am, in fact, an adult. You would think the first paycheck being deposited into my bank account would be like a "Hey! Hello! You're an adult!" But....not so much. The day of graduation seems like it was yesterday. I was eating at Mellow Mushroom with my fam. I headed over to the arena in the ridiculous May heat that the upstate has to offer. I took pictures, lots of pictures, with friends. And then I went home. Home to my apartment. A few days later, I drove back to good ol' East Cobb to spend my summer getting ready for......the real world.

I should have known my summer was going to be ridiculous. I should have known that I wasn't going to relax and enjoy summer of 2010. I should have known I was going to stress out about not having a job. But was I thinking about any of this on May 7, 2010? Negative.

As summer conitnued on, my interviews continued on. One of the many things I learned this summer: I hate job interviews. While you would think 3 years of sorority recruitment would prepare you to talk about yourself to a complete stranger, sitting in front of a principal and having them ask you questions about how you are going to teach their students how to read, write, comprehend, and everything else an English teacher does, is a completely different kind of nerve-wracking. Needless to say, I completely suck at interviewing. Having an insane advisor who never really told you what was right from wrong did not help my case in my job hunt.

And then it happened.

I walked into the school for my interview thinking "Here goes another interview for another job that I am probably not going to get because they are going to hire someone who has 'experience." During my interview, the principal asked me a total of 2 questions. I wasn't shaking with nerves. I wasn't sweating hoping my answer was right. I was completely loud, talkative, and probably seemed a little awkward. But being that I am all of those things 99.9% of the time, it seemed to work well for me. Apparently, it did work well for me. When I called a week later to follow up, I was told someone else had been hired for that position. 30 minutes later, I got a call back saying an English teacher had resigned. Did I want the job? DUH!

Two weeks later, Mom, Dad, and I drove down to apartment hunt. The next week, I moved into my apartment. A few days later, new teacher orientation began. The next week, in-service days began. And a few days later, the students arrived. Need a moment to pause? Negative.

One thing about teaching that I have come to realize: There is never enough time. Even some of my veteran teacher friends have been just as busy as I am. The biggest difference? They at least are more familiar with the material. I have to go back and read Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Macbeth. I have to learn the newspaper jargon to teach to the 9 students I have. I have to learn about theater and plays. I have to learn about picture books and why they appeal to children. I thought as a teacher, I was done with LEARNING. Negative.

I learn something new every single day at my job. It's overwhelming, crazy, and stressful; but, I love my job. I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to do. And at the end of the day, if I can actually remember to think about that, then it's a good day.