stress

I believe that this week may possibly have been the most stressful week of my life.. ever. In reality, probably not, but it sure felt that way at the time. This week consisted of 1) parent/teacher conferences (always a joy), 2) the dreaded Fine Arts Performance 3) Progress Reports 4) Getting ready for an overnight retreat with my students 5) a big project coming in from both Grammar 7 and Grammar 8 students 6) A mandatory "fun" event with Hubby's squadron.. (I'm sure that you can guess that Hubby and I did not have a lot of "fun")

Let's begin with Parent/teacher conferences. In this department, I consider myself to be incredibly lucky. I've decided that I must seem too nice for any parent to give me a hard time....considering that I have yet to hear a single comlplaint from a parent that wasn't directed at another teacher. It's either that, or I'm perfect...(which as much as I'd like to believe.. I know in my heart of hearts is not true) So. Though parent/teacher conferences are time consuming and stressful (How exactly do you tell a parent that their child is failing every class and a terrible person without sounding too harsh, anyway?? I still haven't figured that one out), I managed to get out of them alive... but VERY tired. I may have set a world record by going to bed on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. I was just THAT exhauasted.

Ah. The DREADED Fine Arts performance. Along with being a regular classroom teacher, I (the person with zero drama experience and absolutely NO CREATIVE ABILITIES) am the drama teacher at SMA. This year, a team of teachers got together and decided to re-vamp the Fine Arts department and thus music and drama converged to create a show that was my complete and utter despair for the whole of 3 months. I cannot tell you the sleepless nights that I had over this fine arts performance. There were times that I believed that if it weren't for fine arts my life would be easy breezy and carefree. But alas, amidst all else, this week was THE FINE ARTS PERFORMANCE. Somehow, someway, I managed to pull a performance out of my ass. I even somehow managed to put up a cute backdrop with the help of a couple of very eager and artistic 8th graders the day before the performance. I am certain that no one in the audience was any the wiser that that backdrop (or lack thereof) was what woke me up in panicked sweats at night.. nope.. I'm sure that no one in the audience had any idea that up until 2 minutes before I grabbed those 8th graders (the day before the performance) and put them to work, I actually had NO IDEA what I was going to do for a back drop for the performance. But, anyway, the performance was a hit. The kids did well, somehow I managed to look like I might not actually be THE worst drama teacher ever, and the Principal even told me afterwards that she wants the kids to do a repeat performance for the parents during Catholic Schools Week. That was a shocker for me. Maybe I'm not as completely uncreative and talentless as I had previously believed. Maybe I do have something going for me afterall. I can only hope that is the case :)

Progress reports, big projects in grammar 7 & grammar 8, and preparing for an overnight retreat with my students are all very boring, yet time consuming events. So, I will not bore you with the details here. Just know.. I was a chicken with my head cut off this week, and the fact that I actually managed to remember to do everything I was supposed to is nothing short of a miracle. (Thank you, God!)

Which leads me to the Mandatory Fun event with the squadron. Standing in the same room with and feigning politeness to some of these squadron people was a bit like the feeling you get when someone scratches their fingernails on a chalkboard. It makes you shudder. It was slightly painful, but mostly, I just zoned out of the experience. I shook hands, introduced myself to the people I'd yet to meet, I chit-chatted with those I already know. I even shook hands with the evil Major who ruined my husband's life. I kept myself polite, yet detached. I wasn't about to stoop to the level of fake with this man. I said, "Hi, I'm sarah" and when he said, "I think I've met you before" I said, "Maybe. I don't remember". And that was that.

I admit, I didn't actually listen to what anyone said to me that night. Inside all I could think was, "I don't care about you people. You people are no longer part of my life." Sad, but true. As soon as the formal presentation was over and I was able to zone out from listening to each person babbling on about what an amazing squadron this is(it was either zone out or roll my eyes and make evil faces.. I chose to zone out), Hubby and I said goodbye to the people we saw on our way to the door, and made our exit. I have no qualms about it. There's no reason why we should feel the need or desire to socialize with those people. We went out for appetizers and drinks with our friends (who have similar feelings towards the squadron) and had a grand old time.

And so ended my most stressful week ever. It ended on a decent note, and for that, I am thankful.