This past Wednesday i left school early (3ish - more than an hour earlier than the next earliest i've ever left) as i had to go to nie (yes, nie, all of an eternity and then some's journey from my school) to submit something. It was due that day and i only was finished with it earlier that day so i had no choice (the result of my usual procrastination).
Made it there with just enough time to submit it before the offices closed and then since i was there decided to go for cf since the time and the date were right. It was a welcome change from my usual afternoon/evening routine (i.e. stay holed up at my desk doing work, leaving for home and arriving as the sun is setting) even if it meant extra work to do the following day.
Unfortunately while there i realized i was starting to fall sick. My throat had started to feel very dry and sore that morning once my lesson observation had finished and had remained that way since then - three 'extra strong' strepsils had only succeeded in freshening my breath. During cf i blew out one entire packet of tissue's worth of sick from my nose. On my way back i had no water with me and my tongue started to turn sandpapery dry.
I don't normally take sick days - partly cos i rarely fall sick to a severe enough extent (or when that does happen, it's at other inopportune times like during the MEET trip/overseas holidays that don't require me to miss any school) and also cos i find the paperwork very leceh (that applying especially once nie started up till now as well). And so even though i felt like the following day things would only get worse, i was determined to not miss school the following day. So i wanted to get an early night.
But well as we all know nie is just that far away from anything else of any consequence in S'pore (except maybe JP), and added to that, it's a long story but basically i temporarily misplaced my phone, only finding out where it was at close to 11pm that night (which already was way past the targeted bedtime). In other words, no early night for me, and i must have been quite delirious, for i set my alarm for 5am, half and hour earlier than i usually do.
Come Thursday and i managed to struggle through my only real class for the day - i wonder if the Lord made it such that since i hadn't the strength nor adequate pre-lesson prep due to the sick to do a good enough lesson, he dare i say blessed me with a class that turned out to be extra distracted that day despite repeated warnings from me, which gave me the justification (excuse?) to finally cut short my lesson and play the "if-you're-going-to-show-that-little-interest-in-my-lesson-i-might-as-well-not-teach-at-all" card. The lot of them did seem to show some semblance of remorse by the time i did that, thankfully (and hopefully too - their next class is also my next observation, and a twin one at that eek).
My only classes left for the day were not to involve any actual teaching on my part. But that morning i got thrown a major curveball in the form of a last two period relief with one of my 'favorite' classes. I knew i was in no physical shape to deal with this bunch for one period, let alone two. Another long story which i'd better not get too into here follows, but well it ended up (relatively) well i suppose, with a better rapport being established with a handful of them (those i could keep my eyes on, anyways).
So fast forward to today and something i uttered at cf on Wed rings even more true - this Good Friday is really good - in every respect. The added goodness of it this time round for me is that there is a much needed respite from work, and a chance to be sick at home, rather than at school, while not missing any school either.
Of course, that's far from the main reason why as we remember this particular Friday, it's really that good eh. When i was making the few references that i did about this day being Good Friday and all to students, there was scant recognition on their part of what it was. That left me with one added thing to think about as this week of school ends...
(and to close, since recently i've been trying to read the Bible in French, here's some translated hillsong words to think about)
A la croix je me prostèrne
Où Ton sang coula pour moi
Aucun amour n’est plus grand
Tu as gagné sur la mort
Ta gloire remplit les lieux tres hauts
Rein ne peut nous separer
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