just a job

Today it finally, FINALLY hit me during recess: THIS IS JUST A JOB.

It was like the biggest epiphany since when I realized I was making a regular paycheck and could afford to buy name brand food at Ralphs again.

THIS IS JUST A JOB. Whatever happens during the day happens, and then I have a break at recess. Whatever we learn during the day we learn, and then school is over. I take my hour and a half to get ready for the next day, and then I go home and do whatever I want. (Which lately has been spending my entire aforementioned paycheck at Lakeshore and Staples.) Some days my job is easier, and some days my job is harder. Some days my job is boring, and some days (like today) I feel so successful that I want my little darlings to come back after dismissal.

I have to remember this, that it's just a job, but it's also one of the most special jobs there is in the world. I get to be with people all day long, little, funny people. I get to take care of a batch of children and watch them develop over nine months. I get to teach them how to multiply and how to write creatively and how to wash their hands. I get to show them how to manage their anger and how to make friends and how to distinguish between Saturn and Jupiter. I get to create my own little universe of rules and traditions and order and customs and language and behavior. Ahhh! A perfectionist's dream!