What happened?

   As I write this, I'm sitting at the desk of the ninth grade English teacher at Fergus High School, staring out at the desks I once sat in ten years ago. I have been substitute teaching since September but til now was doing elementary grades with a couple days at the Junior High. It being my first day in the High School, I woke up with a few jitters, not-so-much of nerves as it was with my first day of teaching 6th grade(6th graders can be intimidating!), but mostly of excitement. I was slightly worried that school was going to be cancelled today as we got 7 inches of snow last night but alas, here I am and the flakes are still a-flyin outside.
     As I stepped foot inside the school this morning, suddenly all these memories of high school came rushing back over me. I can't remember the last time I walked these halls. Honestly, most of it looks the same as it did back then. The lockers look even more vintage-orange, the desks are still unbelievably hard, and the English textbooks are the very same ones we had-and I thought they were old back then!
By far the hardest part of the day has been realizing how quickly the past 10 years have flown by. Pretty much every class period I've had today, there's been someone who I knew as a little kid or someone who was a baby sister to one of my classmates...and now they're not only walking and talking, but they are a full-blown teenager! You don't have to tell me that 24 years old is not that old, I know it's not. But if you've ever experienced such a feeling of chronological confusion, you'll understand. Boy, does that give me a reality check. I guess I forgot that I'm not the only one who grows up.
      I was down the hall talking to two of my all-time favorite teachers(had both of them for history) and I had made a comment about knowing so many of the kids as babies and they both asked me if the kids look really young to me, to which I replied, "Yes!"...they said that's how I know I'm getting old. *sigh* (Forget the fact I'm shorter than the majority of them by a good 4 inches).
     Let's not even talk about the change in the technology these kids have at their fingertips. There were a few kids that whipped out their iPads and tablets to help with the project they were working on and I asked if their normally allowed to use them in class. The resource teacher in the room(whose been here since before my time)smiled so sweetly and said, "Yes, they are. Things have changed." Yes, yes they have. I heard lots of humming and singing of some of the latest pop songs as the students continued to work on their projects because most of them had iPod earbuds in their ears and were listening to their favorite jams. I asked the overly-helpful (yet sometimes life-saving) students(there's always one in every class) if there were any rules at all about iPods in school & they said it totally depends on the teacher who sees you with it. "Some are 'old-school' and don't let you have phones or iPods at all in class."  
     Yeah, old school is right. Pretty sure iPods didn't even exist when I was their age.
Other than first period where I had a kid I wanted to deck upside the head for saying he didn't care about his grade one bit and refused to listen to my oh-so-wise words about how important good grades are even if you're just a freshman, it was a really fun day.
   After school, I stopped into the office to tell the secretary I really enjoyed the day and that she could definitely call me more often. She replied, "I sometimes hesitate to call some of you younger subs because I don't want the kids to push you around and take advantage of you."   Two years ago I might have agreed with her that they would eat me alive but I realized how much confidence I'd gained since then.
    So I kindly assured her I could handle it...I grew up with two older brothers, played rugby in college and just worked with inner-city London kids for two years. I would welcome the challenge. =)