Have you ever wondered what Summer is really like or what it means to teachers? Well as a teacher, let me try to explain what Summer really means to us...
Remember that feeling of waking up on Christmas morning when you were about 5 or 6 years old? Sure, we all have memories of what Christmas was like as kids, but even more so than anything I ever felt as a kid... are the feelings I have about my own kids waking up on Christmas morning when they were little...
The Santa pics had all been taken..
The decorating is done, the gifts have been bought... you were at Target last night finishing up! The meal has been cooked to take to the inlaws, then another dish prepared to take to your mothers. The cookies have been made, milk has been poured and finally all the gifts are wrapped at the last minute and then it hits... Exhaustion... what I remember most is pure exhaustion... as a mom, it's just part of the game, for those who know... sounds like teaching doesn't it??
It's now Christmas Eve, the night before the big finale...the kids are dressed in their Sunday best...excited about the events at hand...
and now the year... I mean Christmas is winding down to the final last minutes... you have already come from a Nana's or a Mimi's house. The kids have already opened 200 gifts from their adoring grandparents. The oldest is hyped up to the ceiling about what she got, the middle is fussy about the matching sweaters you made him wear with his sisters, and the baby is just tired and cranky from the already long day...
Yet, all anyone can talk about is Santa... you know you have a long night ahead of you and you are already tired from the get go.. but you think of the kids, it's all for them...
Gifts from the grandparents are left in the floor, the kids are out of the tub, the cookies have been set out and now the time has come... its called the waiting time... waiting on the kids to finally fall into deep slumber, BUT first daddy is outside throwing rocks on the roof and rattling Christmas jingle bells while all in the house are now wide eyed with fright that because they are not in bed "he" might pass over...all together, mother and children rush to the bed and with one swoop we are all lying as still as wooden 2×4's... and you telling the kids, " Sshhh .. Oh my gosh Santa is here, thats his reindeer on the roof...you better go to sleep." And then being frustrated because they couldn't go to sleep! I also remember laying there with them thinking to myself how dumb it was to pretend Santa was landing on the roof because now they will never go out...
But finally, eventually if you wait long enough, off to dreamland they go... Slowly you move your body like a careful, graceful ninja, fighting his way to get out of bed without waking the precious children that are laying all over every surface of your body... so you could now start putting together the great and marvelous gift that had 300 parts to it, the gift that you waited in line for, and honestly didn't have the money for. The gift that cost you half of your teachers pay, the one you felt like you had just given your left kidney for ...ya, I remember that... I remember the little electric red corvette, that Little Tikes Play house, or his first rocking pony.. ya that one.
You spent hours and hours it felt like, putting it all in place only to have missed a step or put something on backwards and then had to start over again... you filled the stockings while eating cookies and drinking milk, walking ever so slowly down the hall, past the bedroom because you forgot something else in the closet of the room of the said child who is sleeping, and then finally... finally all was done and you were ready for bed.
Within a few short hours. You heard little feet running down the hall to wake you because they were beyond excited at what they saw in the living room under the tree, but they didn't tear into it until you were there to see it with them. So you awake and groggily walk down that long hall that is so familiar and then it hits you... you realize all of a sudden you are just as excited, maybe even more so... it's a feeling like when after all you have done a student gets it...
Nothing felt quite as good as when your little ones were so happy and over joyed. Giving their little hearts what they desired and by the magic of Santa.
In just a few short minutes, seconds... all the hard work from the night before, all the money that was spent, all the tiredness you felt... it all just melted away... And you realized that everything you had suffered through to get here, to this moment was all worth it. Its such a feeling of accomplishment to have made it through another year...such happy smiles... And one tired teacher... I mean momma.
Yet the moment is fleeting... before you can even relax, your next thoughts of Christmas hit you and you even begin scheming about the next year, what you will do different to make Christmas even better...and before you know it.. another Christmas will arrive, And the process will start all over again. It goes by so fast.. the years get faster, the kids grow up, and oh my how summer flies by... oh I mean the Christmas holiday!
So here's to all of you teachers who have been at rest.. your time is up... your season of work is about to begin...your hustle and bustle is starting now..
And we just wanna say Good Luck to you all as you start your new school year... like Christmas, exhaustion is inevitable, but it will be worth it... worth all the smiles on those kids faces when we give them our all... we don't make a million dollars, no one realizes all the work that goes into it, but we do it because we love Christmas... Oops...I mean teaching.. we do it for the kids....
So... Peace out...
So long Summer... until next time... the Three BrOKe Teachers sure do love ya!
