Some days at work, things are so hectic, so zoo-like, that I used to think, "There is no way I can survive another day at this place." Kids get wound up and call you everything you can possibly imagine--and several things you probably can't. Sticks and stones and all that, but there's only so many times a person can be called "f****** herpes-a** b****" by a fifteen-year-old before it starts to grate.
Today, someone literally screamed at me, "I don't have a problem with my voice tone!" It's hard to keep a straight face at times like that...
What a change a successful interview can make. Today, I was positively aglow, I'm sure. And though I shouldn't have, at least once I laughed when a kid started gnawing on my last emotional nerve. I thought, "I won't have to hear this for much longer."
And yet -- there's always an "and yet"...
I finally feel I've got the hang of this, and I do feel that my work has helped these kids. Sure, they call me all sorts of things; they yell and scream sometimes; they threaten; they defy; they deny -- but they've been doing it with decreasing frequency lately. Proof that something has been working.
Still, I am looking forward to the change. As is K -- she's already looking for houses...