bts, and roads not taken

Alright.  The back to school post (even if it is nearly a month late).

We were supposed to start back on September 1.  Teachers were to work September 1 and 2, kids come back the Tuesday after Labor Day.  A late start, but not as late as it could have been, or would prove to be.  Phase II of our New Building was to be completed by September 1, allowing the 25 or so teachers access to their classrooms.  This was not the case.  Phase II was terribly behind schedule.  So behind, that we needed to use three calamity days (of our precious 5) to delay the start of school.  There are still bits of the historical Washington Building not completed (halls aren't painted, and they completely jumped ship and decided not to take out the old floors in the hallways, which would have put them months behind schedule).  The cafeteria is mostly done, the kitchen is not, nor are the gyms.  Thankfully, this doesn't effect my life down in the academic wing.  Thank Heavens. [I wonder what would happen if I called the school and said that I couldn't start the school year because I wasn't ready.  How can these construction people get away with it??]

So, school started.

Because we were starting so late, and all of my other teacher friends in the world had been teaching for weeks, I felt so panicked and behind.  But I wasn't behind, because we were all so terribly behind.  Alas, I have caught up, and life has continued to be life.

My kids are actually pretty well behaved.  And I would rather have 120 dumbass well behaved kids then 120 smart kids who are bunch of asshats (pardon all of the asses in that).  And although it's too early to tell, I don't think they're a bunch of dumbasses.  Which makes things nice, you know.

It's a bit frightening how easily one can slip back into the routine of work and working.  And how I caught myself thinking about how I have to do this for another 26 years.  26 years.  Twenty-six years.  I'm not sure if I can do it.  I mean, I will find a way, and I will do it, but it seems so incredibly depressing to wake up for another 4,680 school days (ugh, depressing again) and go through this again and again.

We are under new leadership this year, which I think has proven to be a good thing.  Our new leader is very communicative and open, which is nice.  The kids are also subject to a new dress code, which, if you ask me, is the best. thing.  ever.  It's very clear what is and isn't dress code, and since I don't teach a 1st period class, most of my kids have already been reprimanded for dress code violations and the problem has been rectified.

So, in thinking about selling my soul to public education for the next 26 years, I was also prompted to think about roads not taken and other options I could take.  This feels a bit like choose your own adventure books.

I'm sort of at this cross road right now, where I have many different options I could take.  My teaching license expires in June 2014.  By then I need to acquire a certain number of graduate credits in order to renew that license.  It doesn't make much sense to just take classes to take classes, considering if I accrue enough education, I will get a pay-raise.  So that leads me down the Master's Degree path.

Option 1:  Get a Master's degree in something easy, online, which I will most likely not put into use.  Pros:  easy, online, relatively cheap.  Cons: not putting it to use, since it will be in something stupid like "academic leadership," or "technology," or other such things.

Option 2: Get a Master's degree in Library and Information Sciences.  Pros:  something I have wanted to do for a long time, interesting, still working with kids, but in a different capacity.  Cons:  will take longer to complete, uncertain job market, costs more money.

Option 3:  Scrap it all and open a bakery.

Option 3 came into play at the end of the summer.  My friend S asked me if there was no chance of failure, what would I do?  And it's 100% open a bakery.  I have the concept worked out in my head, I've begun testing some recipes, and I do really feel like I could get it off the ground.  But there are too many "what ifs." I'd need to find a space, get a small business loan, get equipment, and then even after I do all of that, it could totally flop and people wouldn't come.  So even though Option 3 is the most appealing to me, it's also the most unknown.

And this got me thinking about Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken".  It's long been one of my favorite poems, once I realized how ambiguous the last stanza is -- and really how depressing it is.  I don't want to be that speaker who tells her tale with a sigh after years and years have passed, about the road I took, and how it made all the difference.  But what difference did it make?  I suppose we will never know.