Break It Down

Teacher Perk, Potential Stress Spiral!

Ah, Summer Break: the major perk to a career in education. The district stretches our salary out to 12 months, so I’m still getting a paycheck. I have regular coffee or lunch dates with friends I don’t see very often during the school year. Most mornings I don’t even set an alarm. I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty wonderful.

I wrote a couple of years back about how August is the Sunday of the year, a fact that only people with Summer Break understand. Mostly educators, but including parents who stay at home with their children — “They are ALWAYS. HERE.” — we see time and the calendar in a different way from the rest of you Normals. Our year begins in September and ends in June — our workweek, on a macro scale. Therefore, Summer Break is our weekend.

June is our Friday. What are Fridays like for a Normal? Chances are you’re excited to have reached Friday, but along the way have become exhausted. So when you’re finally off work, you’re ready to relax and have some time to yourself, but you’re also tired to the bone. Teachers in June are a little giddy, make a lot of social plans, but also take a lot of naps and watch a lot of television. We just don’t have the bandwidth for much else.

My birthday is mid-June, so I usually give myself permission to do absolutely nothing until after that date. I scheduled a couple of coffee dates, attended a couple of grad parties, and rehearsed with Sisters in Song (my fabulous singing group of wonderful women). I also rescheduled a coffee date, missed two grad parties, and skipped a rehearsal. The June/Friday doldrums were harsh this year, as many of you read, and it took me longer than usual to come back to myself.

Lest you think I’m complaining… it was still June. Just like Friday, where you may be completely worn out but can still feel the lifting of responsibility, it was lovely to eventually accept that I did indeed have the time to be down, the time to curl into myself, the time to not be in public mode. Also, Minnesota in June is a treat. The mosquitos aren’t out yet, it’s hot but not too hot so the windows are open, and there’s something about Pride Month that makes everything a little bit more joyful. I was able to rest and recuperate and be ready to take advantage of July: my beloved Saturday.

How do you use your Saturday? Do you have a list of chores? Do you make plans with 4 different people? Do you get the extended family together? Do you head out of town to get a change of scenery? That all happens for me in July:

• Chores: I’m finally cleaning the kitchen and doing a little bit of cooking. I’m getting various paperwork and organizational things taken care of. We are all doing doctor/dentist/eye appointments. I said yes to a couple of committee assignments. Basically, I’m getting it together.

• Plans: Just today, I scheduled coffee with one friend, lunch with another, and a movie with a third. Just because two of those things were cancelled does not negate the fact that I’m obviously trying to squeeze it all in!

• Family: For over a decade now, my brother's band has been playing a concert at Bayfront in Duluth on the Saturday following the 4th of July. It is family reunion of sorts. My parents are always there, and various aunts/uncles/cousins have made appearances over the years. Since it is an outdoor space, it has always been the perfect way for our kids to see their uncle do his thing, even when they were quite small. Now, of course, they are bringing their own friends, and we often lose them in the crowd for enormous chunks of time. It’s always incredible to me how many familiar, friendly faces I can run into in a crowd of 10,000!

• Change of Scenery: Though we have been known to take an actual trip, more often we carve out a week in July to head up to Driftwood Resort, owned and operated by a coworker from my school and her husband, who also happen to be good friends of ours. Some of you might remember that I froze my brain at Driftwood one summer, so now Dan and Billy do the fishing, and I do the sitting-around-and-reading. Em and her boyfriend will come up for a day, and a couple of teacher buddies will visit to float and giggle and have a cocktail or two.

My goal this summer, as in every summer, is to enjoy Saturday/July to the fullest. I know that Sunday/August is coming, but it isn’t here yet and I don’t need to pre-worry about it. I will admit to having school dreams… they didn’t end after the last school year did. I don’t know why this is, but I’m determined to slough them off. This particular month is the only time during the entire year that school is not at the top of my consciousness, and I’m going to continue to wallow in it until the very end.

Thanks for reading.

Love, Susie