The Wicked Week

If any of you happen to read Shauna's blog (whether you are a family member or a blog stalker), you know we all had the privilege of seeing Wicked this last week. It was . . . . fabulous. There are so few words that are strong enough to describe the pure awesomeness of this event. Despite the fact that my initial thought as the green baby made it's first appearance was of Kermit the Frog and a famous melancholy melody about a particular hue, all thoughts of frogs went out the window quickly (but not after sprouting unnatural wings) as they were replaced with more Wicked thoughts. As a teenager, my parents took my sister and I to see Jekyll and Hyde. That show has been my favorite show of all time . . . . but I fear it now has to content with Wicked. When Elpheba flew up in the air with a vast sea of black cape and fog all around her and refrains recounting the advantages of defying gravity, it was as powerful to me as the moment when Jekyll and Hyde confront each other via song. I came home thinking that perhaps all too often people (myself included) jump to conclusions and perceive things the way they think things are . . . . only to realize that the other person was simply doing what they felt was right. Any way, I'll get off my philosophical soapbox . . . it's just when I really enjoy a show, it is usually because I have come away with a new perspective on something that warrants a good analyzing session. I'll just say that I LOVED the show, and I think Lisa is one of my new heroes.

I was originally planning on merely blogging about the show and calling the particular post "That was totally WICKED!!" in honor of the Incredibles, but unfortunately after seeing the wicked good show, I embarked upon a wicked bad week! Spring has sprung . . . and so has every possible naughty thing my students can think of doing. There has been the boy chases girl, girl runs from boy, boy hugs girl without permission, girl is VERY upset by boy situation this week. I've had cheating, lying, misuse of technology, hitting (with two particular students, hitting where it really hurts), name calling, tattling, more name calling, tears, gossip, arguing, outright defiance, students walking out of class and laying in the hall refusing to go back to class, and just about everything else my team and I had to deal with at the beginning of the year with this group. I had students kicked out of class with three strikes before noon, 5 Turn Arounds in one day, and more than 1/2 my class with either a warning or strike by the time we started our afternoon science lesson. On Wednesday alone I had a total of 28 strikes . . . . a high I have only managed to reach once before between December and now. All in all, it was a ROUGH week.

But then things were put into perspective for me. On Thursday morning my principal announced that one of my collegues had been involved in a roll-over crash on her way to work that morning. It's really distressing to know that you were talking and laughing over a bag of gummy bears with this person the night before, and suddenly they are in the ICU at the hospital. Fortunately, she is going to be okay, and we are all very grateful for that. And it reminded me that no matter how terrible the kids can be, how stressful all the paperwork can be, and how physically and emotionally exhausted I sometimes get with work and the other demands of life, I am alive. I get to live this life and experience all of those things, along with all of the good things of life. I have a good job and good colleges, and my students really have made a lot of progress this year (despite the drastic decrease of progress this week!). I get to wake up every morning and have a fresh start--a new day to improve myself and move beyond my failings of the previous day. I have good friends and a good family, and even though I get frustrated, upset, and sometimes hurt by them, they still love me, despite all of quirks and flaws and the times I frustrate, upset, and hurt them, and most of them will even take the time to read all the random ramblings of my blog. Life is good, bad, and sometimes ugly, but I'm grateful for every minute of it . . . . even when I sometimes forget that fact.