In the Meantime

I know I still owe you opening day stories, and I will get to those. Suffice it to say, the day was fun and great to catch up with everyone. In the meantime, while I get the pictures uploaded, here is something that happened today:

I went to Potbelly sandwiches after meeting some fellow teachers out after school. After ordering my sandwich and waiting for it to come out of the oven and get topped, I said to the girl behind the counter, "I have to go to the bathroom, but just go ahead and put everything but onions on my sandwich when it comes out." When I came out of the bathroom, this is the conversation that occurred:

1st girl behind counter: Sorry, did you want your sandwich for here or to go?
Me: To go.
1st girl behind counter: Okay, because I didn't know, so I just put it in a bag.
Me: You're cool. (Meaning - that's fine, no worries).
1st girl behind counter: Wow, thanks!
Me: Sure.
2nd girl behind counter: My mom would never say something like that. (Then, after looking at me and considering the comment she made): I mean, not that you look older or something, but... it's just that my mom would never say something like "you're cool".
Me: (Cutting her off before she dug deeper): That's fine, I guess that's what you get when you teach fifth grade.
1st girl behind counter: I'm going to be a teacher too!
2nd girl behind counter: I want to be a fifth grade teacher. That's cool!
1st girl behind counter: Where do you teach? How did you get the job?
Me: It's a long-term sub job at the school where I student taught.

And it went on a little from there. It's amazing. I rarely chat people up in public. I just let people live in their own worlds and mind my own business. When I traveled for a living, I never chatted with people on planes. I loathed people talking to me, and had my nose in a book or pretended I was sleeping from the minute I sat down until they told us we could unbuckle our seat belts.

The only times in the many years I traveled that I did talk to people, those people turned out to be teachers. I remember each of these three people distinctly. One was a young teacher from California who encouraged me to enter the profession. The other was an experienced education professor who encouraged me to continue my schoolwork. And the third was a special ed teacher who gave me some real-life stories to inspire me.

It's amazing how this profession touches people and connects people. Even those people who aren't in the classroom. Even those people who guess that my sandwich is to go.