Unfortunate Kid-isms

I can just feel the envy from everyone that I was fortunate enough to enjoy a "fall break" this past week. Why, of course, you are! It was perfectly splendid. I spent Monday and Tuesday at a teacher workshop, Wednesday at the DMV becoming an official Tennessee resident, and on Thursday, my dear friend Elizabeth came to visit me from Charleston. Not only did she come to Nashville, but she was able to experience her first college football game. What better tradition for her to witness than the third Saturday in October!? I do believe that she thoroughly enjoyed herself :) Well, with the exception of losing, I'd say we all did!

However, as any break comes to an end, we are all quick to want more. I complained and complained last night that I did not want to come back to work this morning. As if no one was listening last night, I stressed it vocally with grunts and reiterated my negativity this morning as I hit snooze twice, ironed my clothes and garnered my things. While it's true that I had several work matters that made my blood pressure rise and that filled up my calendar, I was hit with the reality that my students clearly face so much more in their young adult life that I could ever fathom.

A couple weeks ago, one of my favorite little kiddos, a 6th grader, was expelled for smoking marijuana at the bus stop. Yes, a 6th grader. His mother and father are both incarcerated. When another student was absent in my class this morning, I learned from another teacher that she was put in a psychiatric hospital for an attempt to commit suicide over the break. Another student today, 13 years old, informed me that he moved in with his grandmother because his mother "put him out".

Alas, there is an overwhelming amount of these "stories", "types", "kinds"....KIDS. These are children... Children who have no guidance, no support, no structure, no supervision, no role model. I don't mean to generalize all of the students at my school. Trust me, I understand and have witnessed that many of their parents and/or guardians are working 3 different jobs for survival, however, it is so much more widespread than it ought to be.

To put it simply, I will be making a conscious endeavor to gripe a lot less.