50 First Days of School

When I was in high school, the first day of school was always full of excitement, nervousness, and kids trying to arrive to class on time, thinking “this year I’ll be organized and do this the whole year.” In the high school I’m in now, it’s basically the opposite. It is decidedly not cool, and also pointless, to show up on time (or at all) on the first day. Let me give you a sample of something I wrote last January, to illustrate what the [official] first day of school was like.

I was told that school was supposed to start at 6:30. At 6:51, it’s still just me and an empty schoolyard. 

 At 7:09, kids in uniforms start showing up. I ask someone when school starts. Them: “7:00.” Me: “oh…right.” Silly me. 

 7:37, secretary arrives, opens the school building, still no sign of other teachers or director. 

 8:39, I have no idea what is going on, besides nothing. Is there no such thing as wasting time here? What the heck am I supposed to be doing right now? Did I misunderstand something? Do they know something I don’t? How did they all know not to get here when the director said to get here? 

 9:24, enough of this crap. I’m going home. 

5 weeks later: I’m on my way to school to see if they need help with anything, and I run into my director who’s on his way out. “Actually, we do have a problem that maybe you can help us with. Let’s go sit down and talk about it.” He turns around and I follow him back towards his office. “The 8th graders are without an English teacher, because he left.” 

 So I am now teaching English instead of physics.

I felt like I had mentally prepared for so many first days of school. I was prepared for the official first day of school; it didn’t happen. Then we made a schedule and I thought to myself “now school will really start,” and hardly any kids showed up. Then kids and teachers showed up, and I thought, “this is how it will be for the rest of the year.” Then a month after school started, I switched subjects. Then in March, we made the official roster and re-assigned kids their students ID numbers.

The point of the story is, I’ve learned from last year. I know that there will be no teachers, students, classes, or schedule the first official week of classes. That week, I determined which teacher would teach which subject (often, there is no teacher for a certain subject, such as Agriculture or Design, so a Biology or Math teacher must take over a subject they didn’t study) organized the schedule with my director (which is still being re-organized as of now, 3 weeks into the year) and read a lot.

This year, instead of preparing for a first day of school, I try to prepare for anything.

But it turns out, there’s always something you didn’t imagine happening, and consequently, are not prepared for it. How do you prepare for that?

I saw this sign on a plane and thought it was funny.
It describes perfectly the first day of school.

School uniform: white on top and black on
 the bottom. Minus the sunglasses.