Yesterday I was writing about apathy and today my faith is (somewhat) restored. But that just goes to illustrate one of the problems with being a teacher. When you work with a bunch of hormone-loaded teens, you start to act like them.
It's not like I'm going around being mercurial with people but I definitely experience the daily ups and downs that I remember from high school. In a way, it makes me feel compassion for what they're going through. I recall returning to my room at the end of the night feeling as if I'd run a marathon. And it was all due to emotions. Sometimes my mood would change by the hour.
So I get it. I get what teenagers are going through because sometimes I want to throw them through a window, and other times I just want to give them hugs. And luckily, since our K-12 school is now housed in one building I get to experience the purity and sweetness of the younger kids. Not that they're all perfect but you're much less likely to get an indignant "Why?" from a third-grader.
And today was a good day. I got some of my students to really pitch in and help me plan an event. And another helped me put together a bulletin board. Today there was a feeling of excitement that couldn't be dampened by the few who were apathetic. Today was a good day.