Childbirth and a New School Year

Not that I've had any personal experience with the delivery process, but we're all aware that it is a ... shall we say... "uncomfortable" experience. I also know, though, that if you talk to any new mother, she'll most likely say that the moment that child is placed in your arms, you forget all the exhaustion, all the pain, all the discomfort, in the joy of having the child in your arms.

To a lesser degree, that's what starting a new school year is like. June brings a flurry of closing activities, culminating in that moment when that final bell rings and the children flee out of the school building in a state of hysterical excitement, with 2 months of summer freedom before them. Their relief and excitement, however is nothing compared to the excitement of their teachers. We are a population, who, just as the rest of the world is emerging as tanned for the summer months, look as if we haven't slept for weeks, haven't seen the sun in years, and are unable to hold adult conversation with any adult other than the parents of our students. We are, in a word, exhausted. Okay, two words. Exhausted AND beaten-down. And yet, somehow over the course of the summer, we meld back into recognizable humans and by the time school is getting ready to start in the fall, we are the picture of health, full of renewed energy, and ready to take on the world. It is, in essence, like holding that baby for the first time. We've forgotten what, exactly, it was that made last year so stressful.

And then Inservice week hits. There is nothing like meetings from 7:30 to 3:00, for 5 straight days, to remind us of why we felt the way we did in June. I spent all of today, sitting with 50 other staff members in an elementary school library, in chairs that were by no means the right size for my ... posterior.

And so another year begins, fresh and completely unpredictable.