like a Goth, only much less dark and much more Harry Potter.
My life sucks, I want to cry.
from urbandictionary.com
Like most couples, the nightly conversations between Sean and I usually begin with, "So, how was your day?" It seems like most nights he rushes through the enthralling accounting of a day in the life of an insurance underwriter to get to my stories. While he usually has some doozies about attempted fraud and general idiocy, I spend my days (and nights at the tutoring center) with teenagers. And we all know what that means: drama, drama, drama. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I've always got a good one.
The hardest thing about teaching is learning to pee by the bell. I'm a pretty thirsty person and am used to draining four to five nalgenes within an eight hour period. Well, I'm no longer free to go to the bathroom whenever I want. I've got approximately five minutes every 90 minutes to battle the herds of female students, staff, and faculty to get to the bathroom and back before the bell rings. I can't just take the pass and leave during the class period. The high school I'm student teaching at doesn't have separate facilities for the staff, and you'd be surprised how much you overhear in the bathroom.
Case in point: Tuesday morning. I stood patiently in the bathroom line stretching out the door. Two girls, both of whom I know from class, crowded in front of a mirror. Both of these girls are good students and very polite. The type of kid you can't really describe any other way but, "She's a really good kid." I wasn't surprised to hear them chattering excitedly, trying to determine the best color description for their t-shirts-- "I think mine is more like a creamsicle colors. Yours? Hmmm... yours would be like wisteria or something, right?" My English teacher heart warmed to hear them playing with word choice and description so enthusiastically. Questions of shirt color settled, out came the requisite makeup and hair accessories. The excitement began anew. In teen jargon, both of these girls would be probably be best classified as "emo." As one girl tried to get her eyeliner exactly right, the other pouted at her hair. She repeatedly pulled her hair in and out of pigtails, all the while consulting with her friend in the same excited tone. Well, as excited as I was about these girls developing strong word choice, they've obviously yet to grasp the concept of creating appropriate tone. The bubbling excitement just didn't match her statement: "I kinda like the pigtails, but the pigtails can kinda be happy. And we are not happy." Her friend nodded emphatically and suggested that instead she pull her bangs (dyed black and chopped bluntly) into her eyes.
I had to bite my lip and stare at the floor to keep from bursting out laughing. Did we ever take ourselves so very seriously as teenagers??
1 comment:
This is hilarious! How fun that you are student-teaching... and getting to hear some of this all day. I love it.
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