Preparedness, Patience, and Perfection

This has been my most exhausting week of school yet. Oddly, though, there have been no great, pressing deadlines. I have just felt behind all week, and for me that is the worst feeling in the world. Tuesday, the night I have my two classes after I get off work, I had a short paper due. I didn't do it Monday night, though; I was just going to do it on my planning period on Tuesday. Haha!!! Apparently I was to learn a lesson about procrastination because that very morning I was told that I would be subbing for a Spanish class during my planning period. Fortunately, these students were much better than the women's choir that I subbed for last week. The short paper did get finished, but not to my liking.

Yesterday was a particularly bad day too. First, I had to go to Wal-Mart to buy lunch before going to work. When I got to work at 6:45, I had a short 8-question quiz to write as well as a 30-question worksheet. Usually I have no problem doing this and getting the copies made. But yesterday, I had probably 10 kids come in to get extra help or get caught up, and they started coming in at 7:15! Needless to say, I couldn't make my own copies and the teacher who made the copies for me didn't do it correctly, which again messed up my day even more. I should have been more prepared than I was. I don't plan a week in advance; it doesn't work with the way that I teach. But, I need to really start having my assignments done the night before so that this situation does not arise again. I was so much more prepared today and it made a noticeable difference in my

Today after work I got the opportunity twice to exercise patience. Generally I get to exercise this at work; I expect to have to be patient at work. But I had a simple doctor's appointment today after school at 3:30. After about 10 minutes, I was called back to the examination room, but it was still more than an hour later before I saw the doctor for 3 minutes. It's not like the office was busy! I just don't understand why I had to wait. And then, I went to Walgreens. I knew better, but went there anyway. Every time I go there it is an awful experience and tonight was no different. I won't share the pointless details, but at least Jana was there to keep me from really fuming like last time.

If you don't really know me, then to say that I'm a perfectionist might be an understatement. Honestly, though, I choose what I am going to be perfect in. I want to be a perfect teacher, a perfect student, and even a perfect friend. That's a lot of being perfect, so I slack on keeping a perfectly clean house, updating a perfect blog, and keeping a perfect budget. I was reading Jeanine's blog about her thoughts and God's thoughts about being perfect. So many people view perfectionists as obsessive and annoying even. Some can be. After thinking about what Jeanine had to say, though, maybe it is okay to desire to be perfect, especially in what God has called us to. Education is my ministry. It's my passion and I remember the day God called me to it. At this point, I can't imagine ever wanting to do something other than teach. If this is what I do, I am going to do it whole-heartedly. If doing this is making my life difficult, that is fine. Life was not meant to be easy. More than anything, I just want my life to perfectly fulfill the plan that God has for it.

Life in the fast lane

When I drive, I do speed, but it generally just 2-5 mph over the speed limit. However, I feel like my daily life is going so much faster than that. I feel like things are going so quickly that I hardly have time to breathe (much less blog). Life is good; don't get me wrong. My high school students are great, but they require me to give them a lot of energy. The grad classes that I'm taking are a 50-50 split. One is okay and somewhat interesting; the other I will complete successfully, but I don't think I'm going to like the class at all. And the basic math class that I teach at TCC is still the easiest thing I've ever done. It's odd, though, teaching people who are my age or older, though. I wish I could say that there is more to my life, but there's not. Just work. I can barely keep up mowing the lawn, much less house cleaning and grocery shopping (which MUST be done this week before I go crazy). As I sit here and reflect, I wonder if there really is more to life than work. As I peruse the first chapters of Ecclesiastes in search of an answer, the only conclusion I can come to is that man should enjoy his work because it is his lot. If that is the case, I'm doing okay but should at some point read something about what the Bible says about rest. :)