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…