Teenagers have a way with words!
Ah, teenagers! I miss those days of pure knowledge and unleashed arrogance. The days when the two most clueless people in my life were my mother and my dance teacher! What could they possibly know about life? After all, they were old, and it was different now!
Sarcasm aside (briefly), I apologize to all adults in my life during the years that I was 13 to 16. Perhaps it is a sign that
I am getting old, but my patience level with this sub-culture of humans, called teenagers, is at its end. Yes, I have one. She was returned by the aliens just
a few months ago. My, how she
has grown!
"Ms. Kathryn, what do you do all day? Just hang out?" a beginning teen student asked me recently. My initial reaction was to take her head off even with her shoulders, but I replied "kick my feet up and eat bonbons, of course!" Sarcasm, in this case, protected me from turning blue with anger. I was not angry at the teen, but what that question posed to me as a dance professional. It takes me right back to the "easy A" comments from people when they heard I had majored in dance in college.
What do dance teachers do with their days? Well, let me pose this question instead: What do "regular people" do from the time they come home until they go to bed? Let's look at Mrs. Smith, the average 9am to 5pm working mom. She, of course, has to get up early with her children, get them ready for school and off to the bus stop. There are a few household items she can handle before she is out the door, but she is already tired having started her day a full hour before her kids got out of bed. (this is somehow different for dance teachers since we don't have kids right?)
Once at work, Mrs. Smith has to focus on her job, of course, but there are occasions and sometimes a few hours, that she can run some personal errands or do some banking or check her personal email, even make a few personal phone calls. Once off work, there is the shuttling of children, meals to prepare, grocery shopping, little league and other shopping/errand needs of the children, spouse, herself or the household. Evenings might be time for church meetings, bible study, reading a good book, or attending night school. Perhaps Mrs. Smith cleans the house, does the laundry, handles school requests, plans for the next day, irons, writes letters, or finishes a household project. What IF, Mrs. Smith just sits down on the sofa and watches TV? Would anyone have a problem with it? What if she met friends for dinner? After all, she has worked a full day and this time from 6pm to midnight is "her time," to unwind, isn't it?
Back to dance teachers. I know one...me! I get up at 5:45am because I, too, need that time before my children get up. I like to tell my teenager goodbye and if I do not get up this early, I will miss that. I take the first 45 minutes of the day to myself (after I tend to the animals) and then I spend a good two hours involved in the mayhem of children awakening, arguing, stalling and dawdling. Once they are at school I have 5 hours to myself before I must get ready for work. Now, if I were Mrs. Smith or her husband, it would be perfectly normal if I took my 5 hours and plopped down on the sofa to chill. But since I am just a dance teacher and have an easy job and an easy life, I should be doing something, right?
Breathe a sigh of relief, I am. A studio does not run itself. There are lesson plans, choreography, phone calls, paperwork, follow up, student and parent needs, constant planning, finances, community involvement and so on, which all must be tended during the day. Once physically in the studio, we dance teachers, do not have the leisure of a desk job to take an occasional personal phone call or do some online banking.
We have all the same errands; the grocery shopping, the house cleaning, tending the animals, laundry, gardening and so on. Dance teachers are not exempt from the routine and responsibilities of life. We even have to schlep the trash to the road on garbage day just like regular people! Now, keep in mind, we also might work Saturdays, when Mr. and Mrs. Smith have the day off. There doesn't seem to be much free time for socializing, movies, good books or bowling with friends does there? With an offset schedule (we go in to work when everyone else gets home), it is also difficult to build a social life except with others who are off during the day. So we "do lunch" rather than "drinks."
Oh my, I have no time at all for bon bons!
Next month, "This is the exercise teachers give because they can not think of anything else to do!"
Have you hugged your teenage dance student today?
Kathryn Austin, R.D.E. can be reached at kaustin2@cfl.rr.com or by snail mail at PO BOX 771518, Winter Garden, FL 34777.