Hug Life
I may not come off this way, but sometimes I need a hug. I know. I know. I need to be more open about my feelings, but that just isn’t my style. It is just that one can get so worn down with this job that anything positive can be just the jolt to get the engine running again. Luckily this morning someone sensed that I was in need.
You see, I had parking lot duty this morning, and I was posted at the school bus circle. Man, I tell you. Those things just pop with chaos as the kids exit only to enter a bigger container, the school, to swirl together and create a perfect jack-a-ninny storm. So I’m just holding onto dear life, when out of the corner of my eye I see a three hundred pound special education kid charging at me. He’s dragging an empty backpack and his face looks like he just won a snot pie eating contest. Before I can make out that his pants are half way through a descent to reveal his diaper, he has his arms wrapped around me.
I’ll admit it. I used him. I mean I had no idea why he was showing such appreciation towards me, but I didn’t care. I took his entanglement as a gesture of gratitude. What can I say? I was working on three hours of sleep because I had been up crushing edits on my students’ rough drafts, giving them a better chance to polish things up before the finals were due. I just applied his mystery squeeze as gratitude for doing something extra for the kids.
My fellow bus duty teacher must not have needed a hug as bad as I did because she wasn’t as receptive when the hugger turned his attention towards her. Their interaction started out like someone trying to keep a puppy from jumping on them, but soon escalated to something that looked more like a bullfight. A crowd even gathered as she narrowly dodged each pass.
Olé!
You see, I had parking lot duty this morning, and I was posted at the school bus circle. Man, I tell you. Those things just pop with chaos as the kids exit only to enter a bigger container, the school, to swirl together and create a perfect jack-a-ninny storm. So I’m just holding onto dear life, when out of the corner of my eye I see a three hundred pound special education kid charging at me. He’s dragging an empty backpack and his face looks like he just won a snot pie eating contest. Before I can make out that his pants are half way through a descent to reveal his diaper, he has his arms wrapped around me.
I’ll admit it. I used him. I mean I had no idea why he was showing such appreciation towards me, but I didn’t care. I took his entanglement as a gesture of gratitude. What can I say? I was working on three hours of sleep because I had been up crushing edits on my students’ rough drafts, giving them a better chance to polish things up before the finals were due. I just applied his mystery squeeze as gratitude for doing something extra for the kids.
My fellow bus duty teacher must not have needed a hug as bad as I did because she wasn’t as receptive when the hugger turned his attention towards her. Their interaction started out like someone trying to keep a puppy from jumping on them, but soon escalated to something that looked more like a bullfight. A crowd even gathered as she narrowly dodged each pass.
Olé!