OK, despite the fact that I should be posting about our 50's Day today, or Heaven forbid, be in bed, I thought I would share a funny (at my own expense) story with you. (And because posting for 50's Day would require me finding the cord that connects my fancy phone (which is WAY too much phone for me to handle) to my computer in order to download the pictures BECAUSE my regular camera politely died today before I could take any pictures of said 50's Day).
Are my very long, run-on sentences giving you any indication of how my week has gone? Bear with me...
****Disclaimer*****
I love our staff, respect our administration and couldn't ask for a better group of people to share the daily joys and frustrations of this job with-education is a tough field today. We have to be willing to show up every day , give it our absolute best and choose our battles wisely. The children are worth it. As simple as that.
I know that we all have days, weeks, months where we have to remind ourselves why we have chosen this particular career as our profession. When forced to wonder, I repeat to myself, "I LOVE these children, this job DOES matter, the children are important and SOMEONE has to want to do this with a willing heart. "Send Me, Lord. I will go."
That being said, after depressing faculty meetings with added responsibilities, extra duties and questionable requirements added to the soup, I give you the gift of this story ...
My team divides up afternoon duty-half of us go to car line, the other half take bus duty. Michele, Susan and I take Kindergarten out every day to load buses. On Wednesday of this week, it seemed to be a typical day in the bus line. After loading the first seven buses, two remained. While waiting for the last two buses to pull up, we're chatting and laughing with the giddiness of speaking to other adults at the end of the day while holding children's hands keeping them safely away from moving buses.
We are waiting for Bus 804 ( a fictional number provided to preserve the privacy of the innocent) and notice that it is only slightly slowing down as it makes its approach to the breezeway so we think it is pulling up a little further before it will stop and load. Well, 804 doesn't actually stop (unbeknown to us, all of the older children have loaded the bus and the driver is happily moving along thinking he has everyone on board). So I start walking towards the moving bus, thinking the driver will see me and stop. I'm walking, I'm walking, he's picking up speed, he's picking up speed, I'm jogging, I'm jogging, thinking surely he will notice me in his rear view window and stop. He's moving up the hill... faster, faster. I start to pick up the pace. I start running, all the while weaving in and out of car line traffic. Now I just happen to be carrying a huge umbrella since it looked somewhat rainy when we left the building. Rain would have only made the story more interesting, thank goodness the umbrella only served as a prop in this scenario...
It is quickly becoming obvious that this driver is not stopping so I move up to a run (now bear in mind, at 45 yrs. old, I am LONG past my fighting weight which really only lasted for about six months in 1989 anyway, so my physical prowess must have been a sight to behold for the 7,645 parents in car line). So I am running UP hill waving said umbrella madly, yelling for the driver to PLEASE stop. At this point, cars are honking, parents have rolled down their windows yelling in vain trying to help my attempt to get the driver to stop this bus!!! I am asking the Lord in silent prayer to please not let anyone have their phones out because I do NOT want to see this play out on youtube.
Blessedly, the driver pauses just long enough at the top of the hill to give me time to catch up to him. I run to the door of the bus, try to catch my breath and the driver, bless his heart, just looks at me... just looks at me. I have to tap the door with the umbrella and stare at the driver pleadingly to o.p.e.n. the door! When he does, I breathlessly try to tell him, politely and kindly, that he pulled off without Kindergarten and did he not notice?! He said he saw me running behind the bus and didn't know what I was doing back there?! Really?!!! I told him, with all due respect, that the next time he sees a fat teacher RUNNING behind his bus, waving an umbrella, would he please STOP the bus!
The story does have a happy ending. Susan walked up behind me, on the trail I had blazed through the car line, with the four children in tow to finally, safely load them onto Bus 804. They look somewhat stunned at having witnessed this sorry display but all's well that ends well.
Having put these precious children on the bus, Susan and I turn to walk with grace and dignity back to the building. There are a few morals to this story, I have decided.
1) Dress accordingly. I mean, you never know what you are going to ask of your outfit when you get dressed in the morning for this job. Dress for maximum coverage and minimal jiggling.
2) Allow these moments to let you find the humor in your everyday no matter what outside factors creep up in your job to seemingly steal all of the fun. There will be SOMETHING in your day to make you laugh. Embrace it when it comes, it may be all you get that day!
If anyone is still with me here, and bless your heart if you are, I will cheerfully post on 50's Day this weekend.
Bless all of you who join me in hanging on to the fun in this job and giving these children a reason to laugh, hope, smile and succeed!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Your comrade in arms,
Julie