Fall Break

"But Sevier County doesn't have a Fall Break," you mutter to yourself as you read the title of this blog post. 

You're right, it doesn't.

School's been in session for two months now, with one long weekend at Labor Day and no real breaks in sight until Thanksgiving.

"Breaks!" you scoff. "You get weekends! Normal jobs don't have breaks like school does. SUCK IT UP."

Weekends. 

Those would be nice if I didn't spend them working.

I'm not complaining about my job. I knew what I signed up for when I applied. I work 10-11 hours, five days a week, and then a minimum of 11 hours over the weekend. If I'm lucky and work really hard on Friday night and all day Saturday, I can have Sunday off.

I usually spend my time not at school thinking about school, even if I try not to.

And, as is the case for most young teachers, I often feel like I'm floundering because I can't meet the impossible standards set before me.

But it was time for a Fall Break, so I signed up for a sub and prepared myself to get a WHOLE SATURDAY off.
I. Was. Jazzed.

On Thursday night, I was rebellious and went to MagiQuest with my friend Josh instead of going to bed at 9:00.

On Friday, I spent the day planning, grading, and looking at the rubric for my upcoming observed lesson (Y'all. A five-page rubric for one lesson. I've been sweating about it since September). I also went through a few stages of guilt because I felt like I'd abandoned my kids for a day and was SURE something terrible was going to happen (but the kids lived without me).

At 5:00, though, I put it all down to go out to dinner with some friends I used to babysit for.

That's right. I put it down.

And it stayed down through Saturday, which was THE BEST day.

On Saturday, I went to Chattanooga to be with Lisa, the roommate who shaped my entire college experience. We shopped, visited Covenant, and went hiking.

We had a roommate date.

It started with a macchiato that was nothing like what Starbucks has taught me a macchiato is. That cup was the size of my pinky.

We sloshed over the walking bridge.

We tasted Balsamic vinegars, which were shockingly good.

We visited Julie Darlin Donuts (no, we did NOT eat all of those).

We were silly on the merry-go-round.

I sat on Asia (and, as usual, I was bigger than everyone there).

That Balsamic vinegar geared us up for Greek lunch.

We visited our old hall (but didn't burst into our old room like we wanted to).

We gazed off The Veranda.

Lisa demonstrated how she used to spend chapel.

We looked for the broken boat by Jackson Pond, but didn't find it.

We hiked to the overlook that is easy to find.

We hiked to the overlook that is hard to find.

Then we spent an hour on a cliff.

We also what we used to call our "magic kingdom". It hasn't lost its magic. 

In the realm of school, there will always be more to do. I will never be caught up. Even today, the Sunday of my "Fall Break", I spent the afternoon inputting grades and googling resources. But taking a break made my school problems look a little bit smaller and reminded me that there is a Laura outside of Miss Love.