Ten Years Ago

A couple of days ago I got a friend request on Facebook from a former student of mine, and I realized that it was ten years ago that I started teaching! I graduated in May of 1998 and then did my student teaching the following fall. I lucked out and got a job right away because a teacher was taking a job in another city and was leaving at the semester.

My first week was hard. The heater was broken in my room and it was so cold you could see your breath. So guess who got to spend her first week teaching in the library? That is, all of the week until school was canceled because it was just so insanely cold. It got better after that, and when the next year rolled around, I couldn't believe how much easier it was to start with your own class rather than taking over from someone else.

I loved this school from the beginning. This was the school my mom was teaching at until she left to have me. Two of the teachers went to high school with my dad, the principal was my eighth grade algebra teacher's daughter, and the teacher down the hall was the daughter of my third grade teacher. What's strange is that I really don't come from a very small town. Anyway, I loved the staff and the families there and it was very hard to leave when we had to move to Omaha. I remember going back to visit several months later and getting so excited when I walked into the office. Later, the secretary paged me on the intercom, and when I came into the office, she told me how much she liked doing that.

A year after I left, the school shut down and the staff was spread out around the district until the new school was built. It's sad that everyone is all over the place now, but in a way, I'm glad. I think that if we moved back and it was still open, there would be a temptation to go back. I'm sure that would wear off after about one day, though! I am definitely not cut out for getting out of the house before 7:30 anymore. So here I am after all these years, still teaching and it's still freezing, and this time I'm not even getting a paycheck. Today I did my job in my jammies, though, so I think that makes up for it.