I Will Survive (I Hope)

Everyone has been telling me that "your first year of teaching is the worst" and "it gets better after your first year."

But hey guess what? That does not help me right here, right now as I am in the midsts of the trials and tribulations we like to call "the first year."

So I guess here I will start to document just how hard and stressful teaching is turning out.

I ran into my Georgia Tech friend Robin last night at the Moorish Idols/Do Make Say Think show. Apparently for the past three years while she was living in Florida, she was a teacher. Between sets we commiserated.

After the show, Erich, Lindsey, and I sat and chatted with Trav, Erin, and Ben. As always Ben has some crazy funny story to tell. This one occurred while he was in NYC for a job. Along with his co-workers, they participated in a very strange karaoke Bar in Times Square. First of all we asked, why Times Square? That's asking for an awful time. Oh but there was more. Apparently this bar only has 20 karaoke songs and has to pay people to sit in the bar so it looks fuller. This bar also pays people to sing in a backing band. One of the songs, that eventually got played over and over by "coked out business-y women and men" was "I Will Survive." How appropriate.

Robin's best advice last night was that all I have to do is survive --- show up to work, make all the administrative deadlines, and not let it kill me.

Surprisingly, not letting this job kill me is going to be quite difficult. Six weeks in and I am shaken, tired, broken, defeated, and disappointed.

More on my exact traumas later.