The tension is rising. How long will I last?
I’ve been working about twenty hours a week at the agency and an additional eight hours tutoring on my own. Just twenty-eight hours. No big deal, especially when compared to what I had been doing before moving to Ann Arbor. And, I’ve been holding my own. Kind of.
My family has been helping with laundry, cleaning, and the care of the dog. I cook dinner two or three times a week and expect that the other nights everyone can forage for their own sustenance, because I often have no interest in food at the end of the day. I recommitted to walking and minimal Pilates this week when I noticed that my exercise life had all but disappeared. And, I’ll admit that a few symptoms are creeping back in.
It’s nothing serious — a little more fatigue, a little more stiffness, a mild rash on my face and some minimal psoriasis peeking out — nothing that anyone but I (and the people who live with me) will notice. But I’m only at twenty-eight hours. ,
The agency is just beginning to show signs of the summer crank-up. A co-worker showed me the “summer chart” yesterday with the names of all the students and instructors that will be crammed into our office suite starting in the next couple of weeks. It’s exciting–and intimidating. We are going to increase our student and staff load exponentially by the middle of June. I am expecting to be at full-time status in about three weeks.
Gulp.
I’ve been working from eight to noon, coming home, eating lunch, and resting for a few hours before I head back out to see my second round of students. Then, when I get home the second time, I shed my clothes, get into pajamas, try to eat a little bit, watch a little television, catch up with Facebook and Words with Friends, then crawl to bed to read and sleep.
Wake up, repeat.
By the weekend I’m pretty wiped. Last night I slept for ten hours. I am happy to say that it is going on eleven o’clock and I am still in my pajamas on this Saturday morning.
Now, as the work at the agency cranks up, the tutoring is going to slow down. Many of my tutoring students are preparing for June exams, so they will not continue with me in the summer. In fact, I think I will only have three or four weekly appointments once I hit full-time status, but do the math and you’ll see that I will be close to doubling my hours.
Yeah, I’m not sure how it’s going to work out, but I’m committed to the experiment. By the end of summer I hope to know what the sweet spot is — how many hours of work is optimal? My guess is right around twenty — just a little less than what I am doing right now.
So why am I moving forward with more? Because teaching feeds me. Yeah, I’m tired, but I got to celebrate with a ten-year-old who read ‘discombobulated’ this week. I got to read and discuss The Giver with an eleven-year-old who hasn’t read such a challenging book in his life! I got high-fives from a seven-year-old who spelled a whole bunch of words correctly. I got to say “Bam!” when a police officer, who is studying for a test that will enable him to work for the DEA, remembered the three ways to punctuate two consecutive independent clauses. I got to sit next to a Romanian immigrant and answer countless questions about English grammar and usage.
No, I didn’t get a ton of time to blog. I didn’t make it to the gym. My face hurts, and I’m pretty exhausted. But, guys, I got to watch people learn all. week. long. And the icing on the cake? I was learning right along with them. The last five months of working one-on-one with so many different students has taught me so much about language, but also so much about how people learn, and so much about what it means to me to be a teacher.
So, for the next few months, I am going to live in this tension. Thanks, friends and family, for supporting me in my experiment. I know that my decision to live in the tension impacts you, too.
Psalm 90:17
Let the favor of the Lord, our God, be upon us, and establish the work of our hands;
yes, establish the work of our hands.
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