Crickets. Giggles. Stares. Awkward. Those are the sounds and feelings you find yourself simmering in after telling 11 and 12 year olds that you are pregnant. Why? Because they are old enough to know that a stork doesn’t just deliver babies to mommies and daddies. Mommies and daddies have sex. My students know that I DID IT!!!!
I suppose that when I told my students my news, I didn’t expect them to jump up and down and weep with joy over this new life being brought into the world coupled with my subsequent 6 week absence. I didn’t expect to blush either, nor did I expect to be shocked at how few kids said congratulations. The whole congrats notion is simply a matter of manners, one of my favorite topics when discussing the ills of our culture.
I think my news made me the 3000 pound pink elephant in the room. However, I don’t really care. I spend so much of my time feeling guilty about taking a mental health day off or even getting sick and having to stay home. I’m finally seeing another side of teaching which is I can still be dedicated to my students and their families, but I don’t have to take my job home with me. So what if my students know that I had S-E-X; they are old enough not to completely live in a bubble. So what if they rejoice when I leave because my hormones are literally eating all of us up alive? I’m moving on in my life and that is a good thing. And now, more than ever, I can really relate to my students considering I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old and I am literally as hormonally chaotic as my students; like the girls, even my chest size is changing. And what is this mysterious break out on my chin??
Crickets. Giggles. Stares. Awkward. Pregnancy or middle school?
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