School Nights
Yesterday was an average to poor Tuesday. Highlights included: my smart board breaking down three minutes into my first lesson with 27 rowdy music students promptly followed by one of the students fainting in the classroom. During period three I snapped at a boy who I caught looking at the clock and mouthing “there’s still 45 minutes to go” to another student (although this ending up working in my favour as he proceeded to eat out of my hand for the remainder of the lesson as a result of his embarrassment). Lunchtime involved eating at my desk and grumpily staring at my computer screen because I couldn’t face any more teacher chat in the staff social room and then there was a mild upturn when a small games student appeared feebly at my desk presenting me with his glasses which had one arm hanging sadly from its hinges. So we promptly employed some skilled team work and sellotaped them back together. The day was rounded off with what my friend and I refer to as the place of pain - otherwise known as incomplete intervention. Let me tell you something, there is nothing worse than finishing off a grey, rainy and gloomy Tuesday by sitting in a classroom until 6pm with all of the kids who haven’t done their homework and want to be there even less than you do. When they do their work in silence it’s bearable but yesterday they were exceptionally needy. Enough hands up to test the most patient of saints. I was reflecting on my day as I head nodded in and out of consciousness on my journey home and I thought - if that’s what a weekday feels like when I stayed in the night before, didn’t drink and went to bed at 10pm imagine how bad a day like that would be after a night out. Well, I can tell you exactly how bad it would be. Because precisely one week ago I had one of the most exciting nights of my social calendar, one that I had been looking forward to for months and had put the most thought and energy into - my game plan, my outfit, the general logistics of the occasion. The only looming problem was that the night just so happened to fall on a school night. Now if any of you have teachers in your life it will be unsurprising to hear that during term time and particularly during the week, many teachers retreat into a sort of weird isolated hibernation, appearing only at the start of the school holidays in a wild frenzy, ready to make up for all the lost time. I’ve been that teacher. Maybe not since the start of my career, but I’ve still been there. And I can understand it because honestly, as a teacher, the fatigue is real. And trying to teach on a hangover with limited sleep is not pretty. I still remember my first big night out on a school night at my current job - two of my male colleagues took me out to an industry christmas party on a Thursday night to help me “settle in” and I will spare you the details but essentially the following morning involved an exceptionally painful commute, an inability to keep any food or liquid down, some form of alcohol induced shakes all culminating in me falling asleep on the sofa in the staff room for my first double lesson which thank god was a free period. Although I’m pretty certain that at least four students came into the staff room and witnessed the disgraceful scene. Anyway, despite previous bad experiences, last week I wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of my night. I had tickets, with some of my greatest friends, in a private box, to see my all time favourite person at my all time favourite venue - Kano at the Royal Albert Hall. I was also going with my former boss and good friend (also in the running for the biggest Kano fan in London) who I hadn’t seen since he left our school in June, which I also couldn’t wait for and to top it off one of my new year 12 students was playing steel pan on stage for the last two songs! So you can imagine how over excited I got. I started partying from the moment I left school at 5:30pm - tinny on the train, music on high but if I’m honest I really started partying in my mind from as soon as I woke that morning (sorry kids). Our night started big with rum and reminiscing in the pub followed by countless bottles of champagne in the box, dancing, screaming, just the usual hysteria you can expect from any other 36 year old teacher seeing her OG MC on a Monday night.
The show was phenomenal and the whole night met every expectation I had and more. There was even the added bonus of the moment when, popping to the bar with my girl to pick up some more drinks, we walked out of the box and literally bumped smack bang into Ashley Walters - what are the chances just two weeks after I had interviewed him? I got another hug so I was smug AF for the rest of the night. Because of the massive adrenaline surges for the whole night we actually didn’t have a particularly late one - I must have been at home and in bed by 1am and I’m not sure whether it was all of the champagne or just the general excitement of the experience but the next thing I knew my eyes were slowly opening, a few seconds of relaxed bliss until the panic set in as I realised it was a LOT lighter outside than it should have been for that time. Instantly I was slinging my bed sheets everywhere desperately trying to locate my phone to give me the inevitable news that I had slept through my alarm. Amazingly, I had woken just in time to get my shit together and make it into work on time by the skin of my teeth. Needless to say my day at work was pretty trying to say the least. Banging head, mild nausea and severe narcoleptic tendencies. But I wouldn’t have changed it for anything. It’s easy to forget about yourself as a teacher but sometimes you need a night like that on a school night to remind you that, really, you’ll always get through it - I’m already planning my next.