Trying to Separate Work and Personal Life
When you see people out of context, does it throw you too?
Tonight I ran into a family I know from school at a local restaurant and it felt weird. It's a Sunday night, I am there to eat dinner and watch the Bears play Sunday night football. Working at school on Monday is the farthest thing from my mind. But no, a gathering of Little League Baseball teams has to spoil my animosity. First I forgot the parents' names, became self-conscious of my lack of makeup and sneakers, and then worried about the beer at my table. Maybe it’s a bit different for me because I am an elementary teacher and those kids are just as shocked at seeing me in the real world as I am to see them. This has happened to me twice before. Once it happened at Trader Joe’s after school when my former student just tapped me on my back and then had nothing really to say to me. I just smiled at her, made a joke about all the food I was buying, and then tried to avoid her family at the checkout. The other time I was on a date. I was all dressed up to celebrate an anniversary, and we got seated right next to a table where my student and his family were sitting. Making the initial eye contact was followed by awkward introductions, and then I tried to act normal while my student kept turning his head over the booth to see me sipping a glass of wine.
Teachers don’t live in their classrooms, and I guess I have to remember that my students also have a life outside of school. Sometimes those worlds collide.
Maybe I should wear more disguises.
Update--I just ran into another parent of a former student. Only this time neither one of us was showered and we were at Taco Bell. Perhaps embarrassing to us both.
posted by calipand @ 9:44 PM
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