Eighteen Going on Thirty

Fun day yesterday. My advanced theatre students performed their final project -- the complete two-part six hour stage adaptation of His Dark Materials. It has been our class project for the entire school year... NINE MONTHS working on one project. They were terrific, got through the whole thing with nary a hitch, and they actually did pretty grown-up work for a bunch of high school kids.

As much as I bitch and moan about teaching sometimes (and it seems like every April I try to find some way to not return to the classroom the next year) I can't think of any other thing I've ever done that has been as rewarding or fulfilling. I'm a really lucky guy, because I actually love what I do, and it never really feels like "work." Don't get me wrong, I work A LOT, but it never becomes drudgery. And the best part of it is, I totally feel eighteen all over again -- except now I'm the boss and I'm much cooler than I was when I was actually eighteen.

Without becoming too philosophical on my blog that hardly anyone reads, I spent a big part of my life post-high school swearing up and down that I was going to do something important and enevr settle for being a lowly teacher. And now that I'm a teacher, I sort of have a hard time imagining anything that would be important enough to make me stop. Life never stops being surprising, does it?

The pic is from our show. That's Will and Jarin, the two leads. They were incredible.