Back to School

Back to school.  This phrase, such a simple one, used to send me into a frenzy about this time each summer.  This is about the time I would begin systematically planning, brainstorming, and researching for "the ultimate first grade (fill in the blank)".  This phrase would often times make my heart rate increase at the sound of these three words spoken- "I haven't planned enough over the summer."  "I should have (fill in the blank) to prepare for (fill in the blank)."  This was also a time of renewal, refreshment, uninhibited excitment, a time for a renewed positive outlook, and time of newly found energy and hopefulness that this would be the year.  Hours would be spent at The Schoolbox skimming through every crevice of that store in search of the resource, the decoding tool, the perfectly colored dry erase marker.  Then hours would be spent placing these newly discovered treasures into a pristine classroom that had been "worked on" for weeks, to be sure it was "just so" for the impending arrival of eager, little 6 year olds.  It was the best time of the year!  A time of year, I had a feeling, would conjure up some mixed emotions this Back to School.



This Back to School I pass by The Schoolbox on the way to a playdate.  I spend time researching "How to Discipline a Toddler" instead of "How to Implement the Most Effective Classroom Management System".  I spend hours determining how to organize three children's tools and resources instead of 22.  My sense of renewal, uninhibited excitment, and energy transpires for very different reasons than it did this time last year.  I peek in the garage and admire the years of hard work, strong determination, pride, energy, the attainment of that feeling of accomplishment, all the smiles, giggles, tears, masterpieces, engaged minds, "light bulb moments", and even the scent of kids coming off the playground in Mid-May (yuck!) tucked neatly into boxes and bins awaiting the time they will once again be opened. 

 How my mind does drift when hearing the phrase Back to School, but it quickly jumps back into the present at the sound of a giggle, or the sight of a smile, a tear, a masterpiece, a "light bulb moment"....but of a different kind.  It is in this moment that I am immediately reminded why those materials are packed into boxes and bins...

....and a smile, a giggle, and a tear of joy emanates from me.  It is all worth it; I am living my dream job..even at Back to School time.