100 days done. 17 weeks more.

Sunday's are always kind of weird. It's the day when I have to be the most productive since it's when I plan for the upcoming week. It's also, however, still the weekend and, thus, I feel the need to "waste" some time here and there and stretch "me-time" as much as possible, which includes random updates on the blog that I haven't touched in over 2 months.

This past Thursday was Day 100. Tomorrow I begin Day 103. I only have 17 more weeks until the end of this school year, and in two weeks, I will already mark the halfway point of the third quarter. And, adhering to the cliche about life, it's all gone by so fast! In August and September, I didn't think that I would ever make it to the halfway point. And, now, it's nearly the start of February!

To those of you guys wondering if I'm still the depressed, crying, stressed-out person that I was the past 5 months, I will say that... he still exists! No, actually, this whole teaching thing has gotten a lot  easier. And although the sad sad person that was I still exists, he exists to a much smaller degree and crying is definitely out of the picture (I hope).

Everyone promised that it'd be easier after winter break. Second-year TFA-ers, my program directors, my administrators, my team members, veteran teachers, and even the crazy person who wrote the paper about the phases of first-year teaching all promised a point when teaching wouldn't make me break in nervous sweat. And magically it's come true. And I say magically because I don't know when it got easier. But today, as I sat planning for the week, I realized just how quickly I can plan a week. Perhaps, I should say that it's by the grace of God (and it is) that teaching has become easier, but the grace of God is a rather magical reality, so I think the modifier is rather fitting.

Teaching is by no means easy. It's still difficult having to deal with emotions of ten and eleven year olds each day. It's still difficult having to come home everyday and still have to put stuff together for the next day. It's still difficult having to manage all of the responsibilities that come with teaching (I discover more and more of those responsibilities each day). However, I am at the point where I can get through a school day and not feel like I've been fighting some sort of battle. I do not dwell on what happened at school during the day, and I have a relatively normal life now. When I think about the fact that, only five months ago, I was sleeping at 6PM and waking up at 3 or 4AM to lesson plan for the next day, damn, I have come a long way.

And so, tis true, that, for some reason, one semester is the benchmark for becoming somewhat comfortable with teaching. And while I didn't believe it and rather hated people for telling me that I had to suffer (and, no, that's not an overstatement) to reach the point when teaching gained routines, I know that, next year, I'll be telling first-year corps members the same thing. (And they'll probably hate me as a result).

To hoping that teaching becomes increasingly easier in the near future and to the fact I'm nearly 2/3 of the way to the end of my first year...

Godspeed!