Just Some Thoughts: Vol. 53

I smell my summer freedom around the corner.

Just a blank slate at the end of May.

Year 10 I finished my tenth year of teaching! I mean, it’s technically like 13 because of all the subbing I did, but 10 at my current school. The last couple of weeks of the school year always brings me former students. It’s around this time that they get their yearbooks, and a lot of them like to come in and have me sign them.

I’m usually very modest about my accomplishments and talents, but I always feel proud of myself and touched when I have kids come back to say that they’re going to miss me, that the year I taught them was their funnest year, and just to say goodbye. It makes me feel like I’ve done a little good in this world for a small population of it.

I get attached to some of the kids that consistently stopped by throughout the years, or with the ones that I taught for multiple years. My heart always aches a little bit when I give them a final hug, wish them well, and watch them walk out my classroom door and into their futures. I know some of them will find my Instagram account and add me, but most of them I will never see again.

I can only hope that the time they spent in my classroom, and in my colleagues’ classrooms, has taught them to be better and more understanding people. I can only hope that the way I treated them, or guided them, or joked with them makes them stop, think, and try to do better each and every day, and to have some fun!

Update I met with my surgeon and he wants to hold off on a hysterectomy. He ordered an MRI and wanted to get better imaging of what is exactly going on inside of my uterus. The MRI was an interesting experience. Luckily for me I’m not claustrophobic, so being inside that tube for an hour wasn’t a big deal. I actually started to doze off a little bit.

Once my surgeon goes over the pictures, I’ll meet with him again to talk about next steps. It doesn’t mean I won’t have surgery, but I can at least avoid major surgery. I have some more appointments with other doctors to talk about other issues, and so the road isn’t ending any time soon.

I’m trying to take things as they come and get myself back into a better emotional place because the last couple of months have been really tough. I’m hoping that my summer break will help with that.

End It Season 3 of Euphoria premiered last night (May 31st). As a whole, the last season was mostly a major disappointment. I think the thing that I’m bothered by the most is that it had no heart. The previous seasons were full of character development, backstories, and interesting plotlines. I actually felt for the characters and their lives after every episode.

This season was just empty of all of that. It was like watching creator Sam Levinson’s wet dream about cops and robbers and strippers, with biblical aspects intertwined; it had very little to do about the main characters and more about the nefarious people they got involved with this season.

I’ve watched some interviews with Levinson after the final episode and my takeaway is this: In his opinion, it was a season that was dedicated to the dangers and tragedy of addiction, espcially to fentanyl, mostly sparked by the overdose death of Angus Cloud, who died by that very drug. Honestly, I think the messaging got lost from the very beginning and was only found in the bitter end.

None of the characters really got a happy ending, and I’m good with that. The show was dark to begin with, so why would any of them truly be happy and better off when the audience last sees them? It’s too bad this season left its fans with a sour taste, but I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes.