Petty Misadventures and Daring-Do

January 26, 2008 in The Way It Were
Tags: advice, alarm clock, date, hot date, moral, shiny shirt, stories, teaching

The story I’m about to tell you is anecdotal, and it isn’t the one you’ll immediately think it is.

Class starts at 8 a.m. The school is 15 minutes away.

I woke up, still in that half-asleep stupor. I strained to read the red-LED alarm clock on the bunk below me. Its half-functional AM/FM is always an option, but I usually set the alarm to buzz — it’s more irritating. I looked at the silent clock.

“It can’t be 7:14 a.m.,” I thought to myself. ”It’s too light outside.” I re-read the clock, correctly this time. 7:44 a.m.

Stupor over. I threw on yesterday’s shirt, socks and pants, and rushed out the door.

As I told a friend of mine this story, she looked at me with a look on her face that said, “I’m polite and pretending to pay attention. This is boring, but I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

I gave her an out. She took it. 

It’s kinda disappointing once you realize that the excitingest, heart-thumpingest part of your day is realizing you didn’t set your alarm the previous night.

Teaching is an exciting profession, to be sure, and there are plenty of “I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing” moments, moments where an old Marines axiom comes in handy — Improvise, Overcome, Adapt.

Yet achieving these goals, and proudly telling tales of them — improvising with hand-drawn maps, overcoming broken copiers, adapting to disappearing textbooks — doesn’t really excite anyone else, at least when I do it.

I could tell by the expression on my friend’s face that she would in no way be interested in how I managed to scrounge up a transparency of “Dulce et Decorum est” when it turned out I hadn’t enough copies for two periods, or the time that I managed to voice a valid opinion of an RSP student I only really just met when I spoke in his IEP meeting.

It doesn’t help that when I tell these stories of boring-do I have to explain out the alphabet soup I myself barely understand.

But, forget these things. I am in high spirits today, verily. For today, I wear my brightest, shiniest shirt to school, in preparation for what immediately follows. You see, I have a hot date of the most exciting sort within 30 minutes of the final bell.

I’ll have to remember to think up more exciting stories. I’m sure something will happen — I’ve two periods of sophomores next.

Moral of the story? Never assume anyone but you even cares.

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