I’ve been teaching at my current school for a little over five months. I’ve never previously seen a student outside of class. Yet, of course, tonight, I see two of my students (brother and sister) and both of their parents while I was out grocery shopping.

Keep in mind that it is 91 degrees F at 9 PM. I looked and felt disgusting. I was wearing a wrinkly, sweaty dress with sneakers. My bangs were plastered to my forehead. Whatever hair that wasn’t in a messy bun was doing that weird fly-away thing. My glasses were probably askew. You want to tell me that it’s probably not as bad as I’m imagining, but I actually can’t accurately describe to you in words how bad I actually looked and felt.

And, of course, I was listened to NIN on full-blast on my ear-buds when I heard shouts of, “Stacy Teacher! Stacy Teacher!” The only words I could muster were, “Oh my gosh!” and my students’ names several times in a row.