Back to School

Life's back to normal, which means early morning craziness, traffic, lunches, nonstop activity, more traffic, and collapse. You know, school's started. For teachers, anyway.

The first week back for teachers is five solid days of meetings, more meetings, and decorating. Fix the room. Run copies. Prepare copies. Run from place to place. Training, training, more training. Meetings again. Questions. Panic. Somehow, it'll all make sense on Monday morning when the kids--shouldn't call them that, since most of them are taller than I am--arrive.

I love the first few weeks of school. Everything is fresh and new, a veritable Plato's Cave of anticipation. It takes a couple of weeks for everything to settle into routine. Until then, magic. That, and trying to remember everyone's name.

I remember standing in front of the room when I was a brand new teacher amazed that someone would pay me for doing what I did. I'm still amazed, though I admit the amount of the pay could use a goose. I have the best damn jobs in the world--teaching and writing. Getting paid for doing what I love is still a thrill.

Now, if I can only get someone to pay me for the writing part...