Every night since Friday, I can’t sleep. All I think about are those 26 kids and teachers who meet a ‘mad man’ on that bright, Friday morning. This tragedy has hit home for me because (as if you didn’t already know) I’m a teacher. Every morning I get up at the crack of dawn, get myself and my kids ready to go and educate other people’s kids. Sometimes those kids get on my NERVES! Sometimes they do things that for the life of me I can’t understand BUT if anyone touches them they will have to get through me FIRST. So many times as a country we take teachers for granted. Yes, we get paid to teach the nation’s children but what a lot of people don’t know that 99.9% of teachers will protect their children-even in life and death situations.
It’s natural when you become an educator to start to connect with your students. Since I teach 15-18 years old I don’t connect with them because they’re so adorable but usually I see something in them that reminds me of myself. Sometimes they are so feisty that it makes me remember how ‘flip’ my mouth was in high school. Other times I see some of my kids going through so much that I’m in awe that they come to school on a daily basis. So when I kept hearing stories about the teachers at Sandyhook Elementary that sacrificed themselves for their children and it made me cry. Not because I wondered WHY they did it but I know how selfless an act that really is.
I wanted to go out and enjoy myself this weekend but I couldn’t. I just feel SO BAD. It makes me want to pull my babies and home school them. It makes me want to scream like hell at people who think assault style weapons should be sold here in the United States. It makes me want to go and hug every parent who has ever lost a child due to violence. Everytime a child is killed across the world, I little piece of me cries. It isn’t right to bury a child.
Even though I can’t fathom the pain that the 26 people’s families are going through, I’m still crying with them. I’m crying for the pain of them never seeing their precious children’s faces again. I’m crying for the educators who were selfless enough to give their lives in an attempt to sacrifice their lives for their children. I’m just crying.
So everyone take a moment and thank an educator and hug your children just a little bit tighter tonight.
It's a pain that no mother should have to feel especially so close to Christmas. All we can do is pray I have questions so many but right now prayer is a must.
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I'm so glad my mom's retired from teaching. The stories she came home with were bad enough. I could only imagine her having to deal with something like this. There have already been two incidents in our area since Friday.
How are you sleeping? I don't know if I'd be able to sleep as a teacher.
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