You Learn Something New Every Day

After 6+ years with someone, there isn’t a lot you don’t know about each other.  Every once in a while, you’ll tell a story the other person hasn’t heard, but for the most part, you know each other better than you know anyone else.

I know Marci loves what she does.  How else can you explain how she gets up and goes back to work every day, dealing with people who care more about impressing this week’s object of infatuation than about what you have to teach them?

She does it.  Every day.

I know it gets frustrating for her sometimes.  I’ve heard her vent enough times to know that.  I guess I didn’t know just HOW MUCH of her heart she puts into this until last week.

She sat grading a batch of papers while I surfed the Internet.  She voiced her usual displeasures with her kids.  I, as always, agreed with her.

Then, after about 30 minutes, something suddenly changed.  It wasn’t anything visible or audible.  It was just a feeling.  I got up and went over to the table and sat across from her.  She had stopped writing and looked up at me.  There were tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know how to make these kids care,” she said.

I wanted to say something.  Something heroic.  Something meaningful.

How could I?  It was at that point that I realized for the first time, that I had no idea what she was going through.  So I did what I always do.  I let her vent.

She eventually felt better and as I held her, I told her how much I respected her for doing the job she does.  She smiled and after a short break, she did what she always does.

She went back to work.