Freedom

Well, freedom for a little over two months anyway! Today was my last day of school with students. We have a teacher day on Monday, but all of my end-of-the-year duties are completed and ready to turn in so I'm counting right now as my first official hour of summer freedom. The wrap-up of school is why I've been MIA in the blog world lately. I feel that the last month of an English teacher's school year has got to be the busiest, especially at my school. In the last month, when I wasn't grading a research paper, I was probably packing up my classroom (for it to be renovated over the summer), and when I wasn't packing I was probably thinking of someway to get freshmen interested in Romeo and Juliet, and when I wasn't doing that, I was probably trying to stay sane since I swear teenagers turn into the spawns of Satan around the middle of May! But it is all done and it feels awesome. I was telling my dad today that I will never apologize or feel bad for having the summer off. I did not choose to enter the teaching world just to not have to work in the months of June or July, however, with that, I chose a job that doesn't stop everyday at 5 p.m. I don't get to come home and forget about my job until the next time I go in. Instead, I get to come home each night and grade essays, plan lessons, and try my best to stay on top of things so that I can get at least five hours of sleep before I have to get up and do it all over again. So all of those hours I spend in the evenings and on the weekends grading papers until I just want to stick the red pens in both of my eyes and the time I spend in front of the computer trying to find some way to have students relate to the time period of To Kill A Mockingbird are given back to me in the summer and I enjoy every single minute of them.

Due to my brief hiatus, I feel there are many blog entries that are stored in the back of my mind. And since the front of my mind is now clear of MLA style and final exams, those entries are ready to come out--so expect a lot of updating this weekend and in the weeks to come. I have several goals for this summer. I will of course be coaching cheerleading all summer and finishing the yearbook with the staff until the middle of June. But I also have a mile-long summer reading list (reading for pleasure could be my favorite part of the summer) and an equally long list of things I want to do with the apartment. And yes, Justin, I promise I will finally get the guest room to a state where a guest could actually stay in it.

But right now I must get ready to go to graduation where I get to see the fruits of my labor walk across the stage and get handed the ticket to the rest of their lives. And then, I sleep.