Snowbody knows

Today I wake up to a few inches of snow on the ground, but not enough to cancel work for the day. Ok it's not so bad. Clean off the car drive to work get there on time...and only 3 students show up. Now this may seem typical, and for the next hour and a half, students trickle in, email me from blackberries and even peer in the window and then keep walking. Even this may not seem too far fetched if you've ever taught 18 to 25 year olds. However, as class wraps up and I think about fast forwarding the office hour I now need to spend answering the emails about weather and transportation sent earlier...a fire drill occurs. So we go out into the slushy Newark street and stand idly by, waiting for direction like cattle. Not only do I notice that the students keep on walking and many have no intention of returning to the building, or their classes; one student says (in front of myself and another staff member) "Fuck this I'm going home."

Now it would be enough if that was all that occurred. I would smirk and say in return, "Wow you set the best example for the rest of these kids! What was your name again?" as the student gurns in horror realizing we heard his comment...or responds "Fuck y'all too" which is even more likely. Yet, as I decide to circle the block while waiting for the doors to be reopened, a student--not mine thankfully--lights a blunt directly in front of me. My coworker turns and walks the other way.

I now debate the following: It's cold, my feet are wet, I don't even smoke cigarettes anymore, I'm getting too old for this shit, at this point there are exactly ten minutes of my office hour left, I've got a headache, I can see my parking space from here, I've got time for the gym after this...

So I walk to the car, pay my exhorbitant $7 parking fee for the day, attempt to back out, and see that there is a parallell parked car directly behind me which makes it necessary to do a 25 point turn to get out of the $7 space, finally get out, get cut off by a TRAIN and finally make it to the highway and decide: Fuck this I'm going home.

The reason this all struck me as being so ironic? I spend my life teaching young minds how to express themselves. I spend countless hours thinking about what we can do that is fun, that they really will be into, that will make a difference in their high tech lives. I share my own story of how it took me long to finish school, and it was always a struggle to put myself through college, work full time, deal with family bullshit, and attempt not to just say "Fuck this. I'm going home." At the end of the day we are all the same. Teacher, student, friend, opponant, whatever.Some times people have a short fuse. If they do not have a short fuse, they may have a medium one that takes longer, but rarely have I met the person with such a long fuse that we never see them ignite ... pun fully intended.

Knowing this made the day a bit funnier. Knowing this made the day minutely less stressful, and slightly less annoying to contemplate what to do tomorrow. Knowing this made me think about how we are all at the very least, human...usually.