Satisfied

I complain a lot on this little blog. Mostly about being a working mom. While it's still very much true that I'd really rather not be one and I dream of someday becoming rich, building a time machine, and being a stay-at-home-mom (including while he's in my belly), I have to mention how much I love my job.

Every day I have the distinct pleasure of hanging out with 200 insane, mentally unstable short people. While this sounds like it may be a bad thing, it's really not. True, there are days it takes every ounce of strength to not dart out my classroom, peel out of the parking lot, and never see another adolescent again, most days I can't imagine doing anything else. I teach history and English to 12-year-olds who would much rather spend seven hours awkwardly standing opposite one another on the blacktop because they're "going out," then going to their friends and asking them to break up with their "girlfriends" for them...you get the idea. But honestly, the vast majority of my students like my class. While I challenge them and I'm sure at times they'd love for me to dart from the room and peel out of the parking lot as well, they learn and grow, and sometimes I break out into song and dance.

Then there are the bonuses. Like the fact that this week (and it's not over yet) I have already received two boxes of chocolates and two Starbucks cards for Christmas "Winter". Also this week I have gone to a dance, been on the receiving end of flying whipped cream pies, made Christmas Winter Dinner for my class of disadvantaged kiddos, played several improv games, been served a delicious Christmas Winter lunch by parents, had a big, giant Christmas Winter breakfast with the staff, including a rousing rendition of the "12 Days of Christmas Winter" with our names inserted as well as a secret santa gift of a date night with my hubby, and received 100 projects of China in the form of travel brochures, children's books, and genius fictional stories about myself ("Shannon 'Universal Ruler' Miller Saves China and Ends the Period of Disunion"). Today I will be going to work in my pajamas, watching Mickey's Christmas Winter Carol and Mulan, and serving aforementioned Christmas Winter dinner to my students, who probably will not have one with their cracked out, homeless families. Afterwords I will bring my homemade vegetable lasagna and over $200 worth of gift cards that have been donated by my ridiculously loving and generous staff family to a coworker who is going through chemo.

So while I whine a lot about how stressed out and tired and over it I am, you should also know that I have the best job ever. Even if it means I end the day standing in my underpants in the staff bathroom with my foot in the sink rinsing off the whipped cream with face wash. Because when 12-year-olds get together and plan an event in which kids pay $1 to throw whipped cream pies at their teachers in order raise money to give Christmas Winter to families in need, you step up and take one for the team. Because those 12-year-olds are being more selfless and giving than most adults, and it's a great thing to play a part in that.

Merry Christmas Winter!