WNBP: In Other Words..."Done."

There is an interesting little psychological process known as "termination." This occurs when a person is involved in the ending of some sort of relationship, usually a significant one. It isn't a big deal. Or it is, depending upon the depth of the relationship, but it is perfectly normal and super-duper healthy if you do it right.

I happen to be in the midst of a gi-normous flood of termination these days.  Normally, it is just the 8th graders who are bidding us a fond farewell.  This usually takes the form of more-than-the-usual-level of crying girls and a whole bunch of kids roaming the halls because they have finally figured out that we can't really do much about it given the time we have left.

This year, however, is different.  With the massive restructuring going on in my school district (a generally positive thing but massive nonetheless) every single human in the building is going through some kind of termination process.  Even the staff, over half of which are moving up to the high school leaving the other half to deal with new colleagues and schedules.  We have four days left and all of a sudden the whole place has gone into emotional overload.

I am wrung dry and capable of nothing less than bullet points now.  It is a very good thing that today is Wednesday...

*Another word for termination is "done."


*I am very much done with this school year no matter what the calendar says.


*Termination can also mean "fired."


*Something I have begged for but cannot seem to achieve.


*In the words of Mr. Assistant Principal, "I don't care.  Your contract says you have to come back tomorrow."


*This was shouted at me through his office window yesterday as I staggered to the parking lot and while Mr. Principal called from behind him something about how I might feel better if I baked something and brought it into work tomorrow.


*Little Einstein was feeling a bit frisky yesterday and somehow managed to get up high enough to start removing ceiling tiles.


*Today I had two staff meetings.  One for my department.  Another full staff meeting.


*In case no one thought to remind me beforehand, it was mentioned several times that these were the last staff meetings for this particular "staff."


*The first one had donuts.


*The latter did not and it was after school.


*There was a great deal of emoting at both.


*I am not terminating right now.  Please do not think less of me.  I do, in fact, have a heart.  And a soul.


*But I move around a lot in this district.  I don't form the kinds of relationships like the middle school staff has.


*Seriously.  This group is tighter than any I've ever seen.  Ever.  We are talking decades of bonding here.


*Fishing trips.  Parties.  Please-won't-you-be-my-maid-of-honor type relationships.


*I am sensitive to that.  I am respectful of that.  I actually am kind of in awe of that.


*But the open mic policy afforded today's afternoon staff meeting was a little over the top.


*There was a great deal of "sharing."  Really emotional sharing.


*Then the human resources lady came to answer health insurance questions.


*Yeah...the human resources lady wasn't exactly well-placed in the agenda...


*Once it became clear how this meeting was going to go, someone leaned over to me and whispered, "I'll bet you wish you brought your knitting now, don't you?"


*This year, I am saying my final farewells to the last group of kids with whom I have a ridiculous amount of history.


*Some I've had in my class since they were in kindergarten.


*The Future Farmer.


*Spunky Girl.


*The Phuture Physicist.


*All are taller than me now.


*All are moving on.


*That is weird...


*I used to be able to pick them up.


*Now they help me lift the heavy things I can't quite manage.


*Cue the sappy music...


*The Boy Who Likes To Shout Toot Toot somehow ended up standing in a drinking fountain yesterday.


*He was making a point.


*I still don't know what it was...


*I was too busy trying to keep Little Einstein from squirming into a heating duct to ponder it too much.


*If I survive all this termination business, I'll be able to read more.


*I was delighted to find that Cursed (Alex Verus) was available.


*A quick read and a really nicely put together story.


*Evil Dark: An Occult Crime Unit Investigation is an inexpensive digital download but absolutely worth looking into.


*I read the first one a while back and, although I'd forgotten quite a bit of the story line, I picked it back up fairly quickly.


*Sort of like Dragnet in the supernatural world.


*I'm not done with that one yet.  Should be soon.


*Why is my ankle hot?  My ankle has been hot all day and I have no idea why.


*Not hurt.  Hot.  Warmish, really.  Maybe a little more than warm, but not so much that it burns.


*Hot.  Weird.  And I'd kind of like it to stop just because I worry that it might be a rare zombie-type infection and that would irritate me greatly right before summer vacation.


*Tomorrow is Thursday.  I have to go back to school where everyone is really emotional and the kids roam the hallways looking for things to climb.


*This really needs to end soon...


I'm calling this post "done."  I think there are a couple of cats who would like to see the start of dinner preparations and who don't much care about Mommy needing to discuss termination issues.  I'm OK with that.  This is something I can actually fix.

Unlike kids scaling drinking fountains and colleagues who spontaneously burst into emotional bouts of "do you remember the time..."  I'm just not built for this.

SA