Sick Day

This is something that I'm really no good at: lying in bed while a virus works its way through me. I know, of course, that I have antibiotics on my side, but the fact that my class is finishing up their fourth grade year without me is troubling.Now why would that be? I have been anxiously awaiting this week for several months now. It didn't take a degree in rocket science to have noticed the smoke coming off the back of my head for the past several months. I've gone past burnout. I'm now on extra-crispy. So what could possibly be wrong with taking a little sabbatical in these waning days of the 2007-2008 campaign?The fact that it's not on my terms is what disturbs me most. Taking a day to go for a bike ride somewhere other than my school, or making a special date with my wife and son to soak up the last few moments of his elementary career: those seem like adequate responses to the year I have absorbed. Instead, I am stuck here in my bed, waiting for the pain relievers to do their magic. The case of strep throat is the last, poetically ironic gift from a group of kids that has consistently challenged my skills and patience as a teacher.I know that missing a day of school now and again is a good thing. I know that I should take heed when my body tells me to slow down. I know that I will be glad to have this year behind me. This is just like the commercial break before the Quinn-Martin Productions go to Epilogue. I lived through another episode.