As I may have mentioned, I am a substitute teacher for our local public school system. This is my third year, and I really do love it. Why?

1. Back when I still believed life turns out the way you plan if you take the time to plan, I wanted to be a teacher.

2. No daycare issues.

3. I am not one of those glorified babysitter subs…I prefer to actually teach!

4. I get to do something I love enough that I’d do it for free, which works out well, because as bad as teacher salaries are, they pay subs even less.

5. I choose the days I work. I choose the schools and even the classes.

6. I get to make a difference every now and then.

7. No spending all hours nights and weekends grading papers.

8. I can do anything for 50 minutes that might make me suicidal to contemplate doing every day. Meaning, if I had to be there everyday, sooner or later I’d want to strangle a few of the little suckers…for real.

9. When the students walk in the room and see me, their general reaction is, “Yes! A sub! And a cool one, at that!” Pretty awesome on the days your own kids won’t claim you.

10. When the teacher leaves behind no lesson plan (which happens more often than not), I get to wing it. Particularly in the high school, this is a LOT of fun. I’ve had some really great discussions with students about personal accountability, what it means to be a leader no matter who or where you are, strategic quitting, the real meaning of a high school diploma these days, how to be who you really are in the face of peer pressure, how to make decisions based on more than what feels good right now, and a whole lot of other “interesting” topics.