Bird's Eye View

The bright eyed, antsy young woman glides through the hallway, click-clacking her slip-ons against the cold, hard floor as if she’s running late. She flicks on her classroom light and stares at her corner of the room. A makeshift teacher desk was made by shoving two tables together and sticking a desktop computer on top. The tables aren’t the same height so there is an awkward drop off down the center of the “desk”. A tall black bookshelf stands bare except for the random objects that she has yet to find a place for. Pictures of her family sprawled out on a corkboard, strands of artificial flowers, and cute chalkboards in the shape of hexagons give her corner a feminine touch that offers a lightness to the white, sterile room.

The young woman sits at her “desk” and tries to write a to-do list for the day. Growing up in an environment where productivity determined worth embedded within her a lingering sense of anxiety that always lurked below the surface of her easy-going demeanor. She always needed to do “enough” to go home and rest easy. “How much is enough?” Now that’s one question she’s never been able to answer.

The young woman wants to do her best. She takes pride in her work and know’s the importance that her role plays in a child’s life. She just wants to do well but she does not always know how.