Back to school: we’re all nervous

The other day, the pick list was five pages long. No comparisons needed here: I know some of you have lists that are ten pages long every day. But at my current branch, five pages is what happens when I “forget” to do the pick list the day before.

After discharging the books, I discovered that all the fun “back to school” titles (that made the list five pages long) were the work of one zealous educator. I picked three for my upcoming blog post: The Sandwich Swap, My Name is Yoon, and School’s First Day of School.

Then I went down a rabbit hole with one of the titles. This was not a normal rabbit hole. No, this was a two day, multi-person rabbit hole. I went down the “I must talk to an expert” rabbit hole. I went down the “is this person related to the book” rabbit hole. I went down the “will you read this?” rabbit hole.

And then I ran out of time, and steam. My boss suggested I write about School’s First Day of School, because it personifies the school building. The school has all the feels. It asks the Janitor the “What? You don’t live at the school?” question.

You’ve been there, I’m sure. You had a paper to write, or a wedding to plan. You called all the people and no one was home. You emailed people and got answers but not the ones you hoped for.

So what do you do? Dust off your knees (because your knees get dusty when you go down the rabbit hole) and start over. It’s time to make some rules about the computers before the new year starts. It’s time to email educators. It’s time to tell the nannies that if children continue writing on furniture, you will take away crayons (again) and you won’t bring them back.

Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay. The sun will come back up tomorrow. And you (and I) will survive back to school.

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This blog post relates to ALSC Core Competencies of: VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.