Nerves and the New School Year
There is a good nervous. And a bad nervous.
I was always nervous the first day of school, but it was a good nervous. I was nervous-excited as a kid. I was excited to know my new teacher. I was excited to know who would be sitting next to me. I was excited that I got a new pair of shoes even if I had to wear my big sister’s hand-me-down sweater. It was a cool sweater, so that was ok.
As a teacher, I was always nervous-excited on the first day of school. I was excited to know my new kids. I was excited about the new lesson plans I had put together with science experiments from stuff in my kitchen and a script I had adapted from an adapted version of The Christmas Carol and a new group of pen pal friends we’d have from the retirement home in the community.
I was excited to meet the parents, many of whom I already knew because when
Boys and Girls, a Terrible Thing has Happened…
Ten years ago today I was making scrambled eggs in my kitchen in Salt Lake with the Today Show providing the usual background noise. But it sounded like a different kind of noise. I looked up. I saw the smoke and the buildings and the panic. I burned the eggs.
I wondered, “How could a pilot have been so careless to fly into a building?” And while I was wondering, the second plane hit. It still took several seconds to register: This was not an accident.
A short while later, with my husband and I glued to the set, the first report from
