Puffy

No one likes the end of winter break or any break for that matter, especially teachers.  For me this year, it’s going to be difficult to go back to work.

It isn’t that I don’t love my job.  I do.  I love my students.  I love being a teacher.  I know that sounds really corny, but I really do.  My students make me laugh every day, and I don’t mean laugh a little bit either.  I even have a bulletin board of quotes that my students say that make me laugh.  Some of my favorites from this year:

“Stop judging me.  This isn’t judging class.”

“Do you go to the bathroom EVERY day, Mrs. Nix?”

“You ARE disappointed in me!”

I guess you have to be there.  (But believe me, they are funny, funny kids.)

Besides hitting me with zippy one-liners, they are genuinely smart, interesting, dedicated teenagers.  I know that there are many negative stereotypes about teenagers out there (especially Proctor students), but none of them apply to mine.  Many teachers have said, “it’s just because you have AP,” but not all of my students are AP.  Even my non-AP students are awesome.  I just hope that all of my students realize that I really enjoy our time together.  I’ve missed my students and I hope they’ve missed me.

Why then am I so bummed out about going back to school on Monday? Well, because I’ve been out of school since December 12.  That was a long time ago… 23 days ago to be exact.  During that time, I haven’t thought about school.  I haven’t graded a paper.  I haven’t written a lesson plan. 

And it felt good.

That isn’t to say that students haven’t emailed me.  They have.  I haven’t responded.  They have texted me too and I’ve responded to those (but not to the ones on Christmas because that was just over the line!)  I just focused my time on preparing for my surgery and then on recovering.  I think I’m still recovering.

That being said, I am no longer in pain.  At my last follow up appointment with Dr. Sleeper, I only saw Anita.  She took the black sticky tape marks off my body and told me there was still fluid in my body (not enough to put the drain back in, thank goodness, though I did have a horrific dream that I had to have it reinserted!!!) but it would be okay.  I don’t go back until January 14, which seems realllllly far away (especially since I was going every few days).  I haven’t been on any pain reliever (including Tylenol) since Monday, so I guess that’s a good sign. My wounds are healing.  I’m getting better.

But I’m not ready to go back to school.  I know there is a tremendous amount of work waiting for me, a tremendous amount of grading.  Ten days after I’m back to school, my proposal class starts (my last class before dissertation… my proposal is basically the first three chapters of my dissertation! Scary!) 

I’m also a little worried about being awake for an entire workday.  I have been resting.  I have been healing.  I am worried about standing all day.  I’m worried about the physical pain.  I’m worried that people are going to look at me and saying “wow, you are still really fat.”  (I will still be swollen for three months per Dr. Sleeper and my buddy Keith.  My body won’t look the way it is supposed to look for some time… so I guess by my birthday in April.) 

Until then, call me Puff Daddy.   Or at least PuffY.