Before I Burn Out…

It has been a year, I tell you what.

I started the year completely heartbroken by a boy, counting each day I got out of bed as a victory. Completely unsure how I would handle the new classes I was asked to teach. Fewer piano students than I’ve had in four years. I played in the pit, played for the choir, played for a friend’s studio recital.

Oh yeah, and there was that pesky incident of our entire computer lab and every last camera being stolen by students. Students I taught. Students I thought were decent. I ended the year feeling a different kind of heartbreak…

And part of the problem with being a writer and a little bit narcissistic is that I spend a lot of time reflecting. And most of the time, all I can see is how I failed to really teach Journalistic Writing as well as I know I could have, or how I should have made more efforts to drag students in for extra help, or how I didn’t do a good enough job of classroom management with one class in particular.

Even though this year is over tomorrow, all I’m thinking about is how to make next year better. As usual, I have a ton of summer goals to complete–some realistic, some probably not. But I know one thing for sure: if I don’t take some time off before working on the goals, I will burn out completely.

So tomorrow night I will grade the last finals, and Wednesday I will clean my classroom (and referee a vicious kickball game between West High Singers and Wind Ensemble) and go to an end-of-year party.

Then Thursday, I will sleep in, and except for piano lessons, I will take exactly five days off. Might see a movie or two, read a book, take naps.

And then the day after Memorial Day, the real work starts…