Excuse Me

I was working in my classroom in the quiet after hours of the school day when the night custodian walked in and burped loudly. I sat in surprised silence at my desk, until when he noticed that he was not alone, he sighed heavily and rolled his job cart to the next room down, as if I had offended him.

It's a truism to point out that the nature of teaching is such that, as long as school is in session, your work is never really done: there's always one more lesson to tweak, a few more writing pieces to read, emails to send, forms to fill out, you know. Even so, I took this little interaction as a sign, and so I shut down my laptop, packed my bag, and headed out into the late afternoon.