Since school began, I've been on a pretty good roller coaster of emotion, not to mention sleep deprivation and time management. The other teachers tell me, "welcome to the school!" as though it was completely normal to have absolutely no spare time, live at school, and talk to nobody else but other teachers at lunch occasionally. Luckily, most roller coasters have a lap bar or a seat belt!! I might need to throw up after the ride!
Just before school started, I had an appointment with my stake president, calling me as elder's quorum president. This would be fine, normally, but a YSA ward takes just a little more time and planning with things like Home Teaching than you might normally spend in a family ward, what with all the turnaround from the dorms and people constantly in and out of the ward (no, that's not an exaggeration). So, now I'm juggling a reasonably intense calling, three nights a week play practices, plus the regular teaching load and prep for that, and trying to eak out a social life... It's kinda not working.
Most of the time, I'm pretty content, but this week has thrown me a few curve-balls that I wasn't quite ready to swing at. First, we auditioned my choir for a state event! This part wasn't so bad. They had a weekend to get ready, and then sang for me. Audition results? Yeah, a whole another ball game! Between parents, students, and administrators, I'm a little frazzled right now! One student who didn't make the cut told me I suck at my job. What is up with that?
I got to come home tonight, which is a huge plus, and I was even in town by 4:00! This is practically unheard of with my current schedule. Some nights, I watch videos or movies in my classroom while eating supper while I'm waiting for play practice to start. That's not so bad, either, but it would be nice just to have someone to talk to once in a while when I'm eating. :) Every now and then, I have a group of students who stay with me part of the time, but that's not always fun for me... If you can imagine!
All in all, things are going considerably well, even with the high stress situations! I need to find a couple of fun non-school, non-work, non-music things to do occasionally. Any suggestions of hobbies I could take up?
But, on the lighter side of things, I am getting to be quite an accomplished muti-tasker, where I'm accompanying and directing a choir, and I'm starting to loosen up a little bit to where my job is a lot of fun. If my little sister wasn't going to be gone this weekend, I think we might even have gone fishing. But, alas, she'll be with the National Guard, so I'll have to find another fishing friend.
Hang in there! Everybody says that this is what the first year is like - I think it's exacerbated by the fact that you're in a small town. Don't take criticism from angry kids or parents too personally, they usually regret it later but almost never apologize... (Been there, received that) As for a hobby suggestion: go on a date! :) (Oh, was that too predictable? Love you bro!)
ReplyDelete