So, despite the fact that the little buggers have ALREADY gotten me woefully woefully ill, and that some of them are clearly trying to get me to develop a facial tic, so far all is well in Teaching Land.
My favorite thing so far? I have amassed a “fan club” so far consisting of a few of the girls in my class. Everything I do or say or wear is “TOTALLY COOL OMG MS. MENDELSOHN!”. Yeah, it’s totally silly and ridiculous, but for someone who has felt decidedly uncool her whole life, it’s really kind of fun. You should have seen their faces when I told them that the bracelet I was wearing used to be a spoon, and that I bought it on Etsy for $12. They’re just starting to develop their own little personal senses of style and it’s truly adorable. I remember being their age and AGONIZING over which scrunchie I would wear on my wrist that day.
It’s such a fun age: they’re all still very baby-faced and cute but I can sort of see the little adults they’ll eventually become starting to take shape, slowly. They’ve all got their own unique and intense personalities and interests and yet they still have that collective bond of kid-ness and can coexist peacefully for the most part without the ‘tudes and cliques that will appear any minute now.
Also there’s a hot janitor. No, really. A hot janitor. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I’m pretty sure the janitor at my school was 95 years old (so in reality he was, like, 45) and all I remember is that he smoked in his tiny office and put the cigarette butts in an old Eight O’Clock coffee can that seemed perpetually filled to the brim and yet always managed to accommodate his next butt, snubbed out hastily before having to go inevitably mop up some kid’s vomit.
It’s funny the things we remember. I guess I just hope that, even though I’ll only be with them for a few months, at least a few of these kids will remember me. And that they won’t remember me as being 95 years old.
