Oh, School.

My reaction to the first days of school is basically exclamation points and italics.  Of the good variety.  I am deliriously excited about all things school and I think my excitement is grounded in logical reasons and is not an inexplicable reaction to no sleep and birth control.

To begin, my students are so great I suspect there was some sort of foul play during registration but have decided not to ask questions.  I am just going to scoop up my lovely students and carry on.  Thus far there has been a positively delightful vibe in every. single. class.  People of the world, this is a miracle of the highest order!  We've laughed, read, written, discussed.  It's been dreamy.  And I know, I know...there's still time for them to turn on me.  But I'm just going to let my inner optimist have this one.

And, as if having an all-star roster of students wasn't enough, I moved into a brand new classroom that is everything I could have hoped for.  It's functional, airy, literally feet away from a bathroom and drinking fountain, and has massive windows.  I have the corner room and when I saw the bathroom's proximity an illogical part of my thought, the admin know.  About my obnoxious peeing habit.  And then I remembered that they're probably too busy to track the teachers' collective bathroom habits and chalked the location up to good fortune.

This is the part where I realize my luck is getting a bit out of hand.  Because there's more.  Last year some of my students and I tossed around the idea of starting a creative writing club.  That dream stuck with me throughout the summer and I found myself crafting make believe logos and writing prompts, all whilst not being sure whether their interest was legitimate.  But, lo and behold, a herd of my fabulous former students swarmed my classroom during lunch on the first day of school, making sure I was still on board.  Um.  On board with my dream job getting even better?  Check.  Anyway, as it turns out, there's a lot of red tape involved in starting a club.  So, I gathered the paperwork and we had an impromptu meeting today.  Once everyone was settled, I sifted through the forms, mentioning the various things required.  There was a slight pause and a few girls exchanged glances.  "So...we kind of figured this all out last night.  We got together because we were too excited to wait."  Without prodding, they had crafted a name, a logo, possible meeting times and activities; they'd talked to someone about making shirts.

And that's when I realized my secret teacher talent: sitting back and letting awesome students do awesome things.  I literally had to contribute next to nothing, and yet the meeting was beyond productive.

Did I mention that one of my best friends from high school (currently living in Iowa) made a surprise visit during this already phenomenal meeting?  Because that also happened.  And she came bearing peanut butter M&Ms.  I mean, today was weirdly good.

Furthermore, I have six TAs, which is sort of magical (for me, at least.  They're busy realizing being a TA is less glamour, more grunt work).  And, off-topic except for the common theme of awesomeness, there's talk of a faculty powderpuff league.  And, less off-topic, I'm still coaching basketball.

All this is to say, I almost crashed driving home today because I was busy smiling to myself like a goof and choreographing (in my head) a flash mob dance the basketball team could do to We Are Done, which makes zero sense but makes me happy for some reason.

So I think it's safe to say that things are good.