The Best Surprises Come with Pizza

Being a librarian can be a pretty thankless job much of the time. Administrators might not understand the role the library is supposed to play in the school/community, staff members might not understand what types of tasks we spend our days doing (no- we don't just sit around and read all day) and students struggle to understand the logistics of library relations, like if we requested a book from another library yesterday, it's not going to be here this morning. We don't air-mail books overnight.

We do get some "thank you's" over the course of the day, but they're often the polite automatic responses that we're all programmed with to maintain general social courtesy.

Being an educator of any type- not just a school librarian- is often a thankless job. It's not like the kids are going to thank a teacher for assigning homework. It's not like the parents are going to thank you for making a project deadline the day after spring break ends when they've already planned a family trip to Florida. And it's not like the administrators are going to thank you for requesting more money for supplies.

I've pretty much made my peace with this reality because it's not as though I do my job to get recognition or praise, but it's always welcome.  .  .especially when it comes unexpectedly.

I taught college English classes for years, and I loved it. It was getting the best of both worlds: spending my days in a middle school, talking to kids about the books they love, and then going to a different educational environment where I could talk to adults about the issues that matter to them, and guide them in how to write about the things they love.

Today I made an impromptu stop at a local pizza place for a quick slice, and I recognized the young guy working there. I asked him if he's ever attended classes at Great Bay Community College, and he said that indeed, he'd taken one of my English classes a couple years ago.

He continued by saying what a great class it was, and even though he didn't continue his college career (at least not yet) that he really valued it. And then he gave me my slice of BBQ chicken pizza for free to show his appreciation.

I always enjoy seeing former students (middle school and college) and catching up with them, but his words meant alot to me. I'm not teaching college courses at the moment because I'm quite busy in Toddler Land, but it was nice knowing that my teaching had a positive impact on one of my students.

This has been a very busy and stressful school year already (and it's only the first month!) so I wanted to take a moment and record this nice interaction before it gets lost in the haze of lesson planning, timesheets, and daily commutes.