I Am A Teacher.

In less than two weeks, school starts. I will be welcoming 80 students into my classroom as I desperately attempt to remember everything I learned throughout student teaching and college. I'll have my own rules and procedures and parent/teacher conferences and meetings and this and that. It's all very exciting and I'm so proud and thankful to have this job. 

But I do have to admit; it's slightly intimidating. 

This next year will be a year I will never forget. People tell me I will remember these 80 students more than I'll remember any others in my years of teaching. I'll learn about myself and the field. I'll be busy and overwhelmed. I'll be going to bed earlier than ever and waking up even sooner. I'll be developing relationships with 6th graders and 60 year-olds and learning from them all. I'll be calling parents to congratulate them on their son's hard work and I'll be meeting with them to talk about poor behavior. I'll be confused. I'll be confident. I'll be energetic. I'll be exhausted. I'll be a teacher.

So, as I anxiously await the first day, cheers to all of us first-year teachers (and returning teachers) for having a good year. Cheers to being woken up in the middle of the night to dreams about the first day of school. Cheers to spending more money than we should to make sure our classrooms are absolutely perfect. Cheers to pension and retirement plans (whatever that means, anyway?). Cheers to coffee. Cheers to early alarm clocks buzzing. Cheers to educating and inspiring. Cheers to being a teacher, one of the best jobs out there.

Here we go!