Stick Together Like Mud

I ran into my girlfriends recently but we were all forty years younger.  

My hubby and I took advantage of a warm afternoon and visited a local beer garden. We enjoyed new brews, a tasty Turkish sandwich, and the sun on our backs. 

The tables were wooden picnic benches lined up end to end to seat crowds, like old school lunchroom tables. There was no crowd, only a small group of twenty-something women nearby.  It was too early for corporate types to be at happy hour. One woman showed off her new wedding ring and recounted it’s history. I knew it was fall break, and something about them made me think “teachers.” Another clue was that only one man was part of the group, which is typical of an elementary school. “The gym teacher” my husband said.  He may not have been the gym teacher, but the male-female ratio in elementary schools has barely changed in the last thirty years. 

When a group of three more approached they called out “Here’s the third grade.” So they were teachers. I couldn’t hear them clearly, but I didn’t hear any grumbling tones, from which I inferred their work together was collegial and satisfying. They were certainly enjoying themselves.

A good school environment can forge strong, respectful working relationships. And that fosters tight friendships. When you work and do life with a sympathetic, encouraging group, you are truly blessed. 

I went over and confirmed my prediction. We shared school names and grades taught.  I told them they reminded me of my own special group of teacher friends. 

Looking back from retirement I know that co-workers can impact each other as much as they impact their students. 

I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. The main character lives  a hard-scrabble life in a marsh, deserted by every family member. She longs for companionship and remembers a distant happy event before she was abandoned. On a rare outing her mother and sisters took the father’s boat without permission and got stuck in mud. They’re mud-covered by the time the boat is freed. Yet they’ve laughed and enjoyed themselves. Their mother says it’s a lesson in life. They turned their trouble to fun. “That’s what sisters and girlfriends are all about. Sticking together even in the mud, ‘specially in the mud.”

My teacher friends and I stuck together through mud at school, and mud at home. I wish the same for the upcoming generation of teaching professionals.

Young teachers from McMeen Elementary School, this is my benediction to you.