holding out for summer

photo: C.T. Duncan

This end of the school year business is for the birds! I have learned so much about what I will not be doing next year by the absolute torture I am going through right now with grading. I feel shackled to the grading, and I just hate it. The pressure is killing my enthusiasm. 

Now that I have that out, I want to express how much I adore being a teacher. These students of mine are creative, thoughtful, and ready to learn anything I can teach them. I have received numerous emails, notes, cards, gifts, and even one student wrote a song for me and another teacher and created a video performing it. I was actually worried about that particular student not feeling challenged enough, but he decided to stay at my private school because of how awesome I (and the other teacher) am. What a source of joy and satisfaction teaching can be! So much adventure in each new day.

I will miss my students. That is true. But I will also be happy to leave grading behind me and have the chance for further adventures this summer. I want to ride on planes, drive in cars, ride the rails, and see the sun, moon, and stars under as many different skies as possible. Just writing these things out onto the page has me bubbling with excitement. Pure hyperactivity! The possibilities are absolutely endless. 

I long to lose track of time and space, to take photographs without number, to show my wishes on my face and watch them coming true in that very moment. I long for another summer—not the same summer—but another summer filled with every good thing that delightful happenstance and a handful of good decisions can bring.