Why I Work

I flew in from Virginia today and went straight to work, where I run afterschool and community programs for our church.  The high school seniors were coming in today to work on college essays.

When I got in, D asked me how long it would be until the jet lag hit me.  He thought that every time you took a flight you would have jet lag. He’s one of the brightest kids I’ve worked with.  (His essay today had this line: Her words calmed the seismograph that was  my heart.) But he’s received a rotten education, and he didn’t know what jet lag is, and he’s negligently underprepared for college. Which makes me mad.

Like D, I had never been on a plane before my senior year in high school.  Unlike D, my school asked me to read widely and take science classes with labs and write geometry proofs.  So I knew what jet lag was and I was prepared for college.

I explained to D what jet lag was and why I wouldn’t suffer from it flying in from Virginia.  Then we worked on his essay, to come up with a structure for it that was as strong as the poetry of its language.  Which was fun.

And today, for the first time since I started to homeschool, I was glad that I still work.  It’s been so hard, and I have NO time to myself anymore.  And I’m barely getting everything done at work. And things would work better for the boys if we had a more leisurely school schedule.  And I’m showering less than before, which is disturbing given how inadequate my previous bathing schedule was.

But I love D.  And I love my boys.  And I’m glad God is making a way for me to teach all three of them – even if it isn’t always pretty.