Dear Unsatisfied Teacher,
If you could have another day off, life would be better. If the year was already finished, then your world would be grand.
If you could teach the lesson over, better next time, then you wouldn’t have any regrets. If you could have a different class next year, then you could finally be happy. If they’d just raise your salary, you would take more pride in your work.
If someone showed appreciation for the work you put in, then you would feel more supported. If we didn’t get out of school so late, start so early, or have so many post-planning days, you’d already be at the beach. Then, the real fun could begin. Cool breeze, white sand, crashing waves, the ebb and flow of give and take.
The level shore beckons us to cement this truth in our hearts: wishing away any day is foolish. We are promised nothing but today, so if today's task is to work, let us work, and if it is to play, let us play. But don’t let work nor play suck us into the undertow of believing this is all there is.
Time’s greatest irony is that we spend so many of our days wishing away the hours we later end up only begging to get back.
Maybe John Keats, who died at a young 25 years old, understood the brevity of life better than most when he said, “Then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink.”
Teachers are definitely sinking right now. It’s hard to see the rescue when you’re going under, but hang tight. You can do this. This is not the hardest thing you've had to do all year.
After all, finishing the year strong is not nearly as difficult as starting the year in a mask during a global pandemic while playing Russian Roulette every time you open your classroom door.
Closing a classroom door is much easier than opening one, wouldn’t you agree?
-CDB