Not To Get All Earnest On You. . . .

I know I complain a lot on here. I know it is less than riveting to read about my weight gain and sweatiness, but shit. A girl's gotta vent!

It's my bloggy and I'll bitch if I want to.

But today I read a bunch of old posts (because lunch was this cold-fish-with-spicy-french-fries concoction that I Was. Not. Eating.), and realized I haven't told you something very, very, mucho importante. Also vital, central, and of top priority. And adorable.

I have a fan club. Several, actually. There's one in every class, and I have 17 different classes covering 6 different grades. And they think I am the bee's knees. The cat's pajamas. The greatest thing since sliced bread. In other words, I am THE SHIT.

Which we all knew, natch. But it's always nice to have it confirmed by an outside source.

Prathoms 2 and 3 are my favorite. The girls imitate everything I do, from constantly tucking a loose piece of hair behind one ear to carrying around a water bottle. They all want to get three piercings in one ear and one in the other. Last week I stretched to get something and a few girls caught sight of my pink dangly skull-and-crossbones navel ring, and the place went wild. (I have worried I'll be a bad influence on them- you know, navel ring, mascara overuse, stuff like that- but if it motivates them to learn, I don't care. Hell, I'll pierce their little navels myself if it will help them retain some English.) The boys beg for hugs and kisses, want to hold my hand when we go to lunch, and are so eager to get the right answers it's almost embarrassing.

In prathom 2 and 3 they're young enough, and close enough to babyhood, to be sweet, trusting, and eager to please. They don't care about their peers much yet. But they're old enough and developed enough that I feel like they might actually be learning something. The littler ones- Prathom 1- are cute as uniformed buttons, but they've never had English before. We're talking the Great Language Barrier Reef here. And once they get to Prathom 4 they're much too cool.

Any teacher knows- and anyone else can imagine- that indescribable heart-busting wonderful feeling that you get when you enter a classroom and the kids cheer. When they're excited to see you, excited for your class, having fun while they learn. It makes all the hours I spend banging my forehead against hard surfaces worth it. And honestly, I've never felt like that before. . . .