Every once in a while, I tell a story about why I like teaching high school kids. When I was an intern, I went to two-year-old Punkin’s class to pick her up. Her teacher had caught wind of my working with high school kids, and she was astounded. “HOW do you do it?!” she asked. “The hormones and the attitude and the teenagers. Ugh!”
I proceeded to tell her that I had no trouble at all with the hormones or the attitudes or any of that. I’ve got sufficient energy and patience, not to mention attitude to spare: my kids can start with me, but I will end it. I told her I wanted to teach teenagers for a couple of important reasons: they are at (or at least close to) the cognitive level I need to do the work that I do, and I can relate to them in a really positive way (most of the time). Little kids swarm, I told her, and there’s all that spontaneous puking. She laughed at that and assured me that they don’t do that as often as I thought, though I told her that ANY spontaneous puking is too much (and, in a gorgeous bit of Universal synchronicity, a little person barfed on the teacher’s shoes about three days after we had that conversation).
I realized, a little while ago, that there’s another perk to teaching high school. I get to go to prom!
I’m chaperoning CHS’s prom on Saturday, and I’m really looking forward to it. My own proms kind of sucked; the boyfriend I had in high school broke up with me months before my senior prom, but felt honor-bound to bring me, as promised, to the dance. He ended up ditching in the middle of the event, so I had to call someone else to bring me home (though I’ve got to tell you; I was HOT. I had this smokin’ black with gold glitter dress, teensy spaghetti straps and a handkerchief hemline, and a kickin’ retro hat with a veil across my eyes. Sigh).
I’m not going to go to the prom to make up for my own rotten experience, though; I’m going because I love the kids and I love spending time with them outside of the classroom. I am looking forward to going to a party with these kids (and with my coworkers who are chaperoning, too). Besides, I get to wear a pretty dress!
I’ve got two dress choices for Saturday night, and the jury’s still out on which I’m going to wear. One is a Jessica McClintock number, plain black satin with pretty little spaghetti straps, ankle length, and just a hint of come-and-get-me red tulle peeking out from under the hemline. The other is the dress I wore to Dudley’s wedding; it falls just below the knee and also has spaghetti straps. It’s a kind of sky blue with a black overlay (I wish I could find – or take – a decent picture of it) and a pretty black sash around the middle.
Which do you think I should wear this year?
*Edited to include two lousy iPhone pictures*
black and sexy:
Short and sassy:
NOW what do you think?
