Decisions, Decisions....

So I'm a teacher, and today my students are doing in-class writing about an important decision they have made. I guess if I were a student in my class, I would write about my decision to spend this year not bemoaning my single status. My essay would probably sound a bit like this--

As much as I wish my decision to celebrate my singleness was a one-time thing, I am quickly discovering it is not. Today, I have already wished for a husband twice. First, I went outside to crank up my car so it would be warm when I had to leave for school. My thought as I bumbled out into the cold of my driveway was that if I had a husband, he would delight in walking out into the cold morning to warm up my car for me. Second, I had a conversation with a friend I teach with that can basically be summed up with this: "If we could only marry rich guys, then we could quit teaching. We wouldn't have had to get up this morning to come to school. We could stay home and cook all day! We could go out to lunch and shop instead of trying to control the first-day-back-from-break-so-we're-going-to-be-crazy kids at school!"

There are some obvious flaws in my thinking here. For starters, my imaginary husband would probably think it was really cold too and would probably not look forward to freezing cold leather any more than I do. And while I love to think that the person I marry will be wonderfully attentive and thoughtful all the time, the reality of the situation is that I will be marrying a man. And is anyone, my fictional husband included, really all that thoughtful at 6:45 in the morning? So, I had to decide in that moment to stop thinking the way I was thinking. Instead, I started to think of how grateful I am to have a car, how thankful I am that it takes less than a minute to get from my front door to my car, and that one day I might have a house with a garage (which, unlike a husband, is something I could actually purchase).

Moving on to my friendly conversation about rich husbands....While there are some days when I'm not the biggest fan of my job, most days I absolutely love it. While the thought of staying home all day drinking tea, reading books, and cooking dinner sounds amazing to me on days like today, the reality is that after a few days I would get bored. I would miss my crazy students, and I would probably start to resent fake husband who let me quit my job and stay home. Also, I would not have an excuse not to do laundry. So, I had to stop myself and start to think of all the things I'm thankful for again. I get to go to work and talk about reading and writing all day. I get to laugh--often at myself. I work with some really amazing people who I would most definately miss if I stayed home all day. I get to make a difference in the lives of kids everyday. And, because I'm single right now, I have lots of time to put into teaching--doing things like planning, reading young adult books, and going to my students games and concerts.

So I guess that my important decision is a decision I'm going to have to keep remaking, over and over again, everyday. I have to choose to think about all the wonderful things I have, not one thing that I don't. I mean, look at today. I had to make it twice before my students came rambling down the hall at 8:10.

Then again, I could follow in the footsteps of one of my students who is currently writing about his decision to wear pants to school today instead of shorts. I have to agree with him that it was a very good choice because the heat isn't working in my classroom....