Lights

I've been thinking a lot lately about lights. That sounds like it's all metaphorical, and I'm sure it is. Primarily though, I've just been thinking about how I don't have any.

My classroom is on the interior of the school. I lovingly call my room a cave. I have a window that opens into the hallway, usually an almost tangible mass of teenage cacophony full of profanity and even more offensive perfumes and colognes. Needless to say, I've covered that window with brightly colored paper. Eventually I'm sure my prayers will be answered and that magical paper will block sounds and smells too. My classroom then depends on the fluorescent lights which are magnified by the walls, floor, and ceiling all being the same shade of off-white. Because of the seasons, I get to school well before the lazy sun sees fit to rise. When I walk outside after school, I have to resist the urge to run away hissing while covering my eyes and face with my scarf.

Then I go to my tutoring gig, where I have been frequenting the interior classroom. Anyone see a trend? By the time I leave for home, the lazy sun has already called it a day. I think I'm going to have to start going to the tanning salon again. Seriously. I was pale before I started abstaining from natural light. I'm becoming translucent.

Then, as I was driving to work last week (you know, in the dark), I noticed that the nicer the houses got, the darker they were at 6.15 in the morning. There must be a correlation. The more money you make, the later you can sleep in? I'm sure that can't be quite right, but I do know that people making bank aren't driving to a natural-lightless cubicle at 6 in the morning.

I have decided to start measuring my success by the natural light I have the opportunity to enjoy. And since my school would probably frown on me busting out the ceiling in the cave to make way for natural light, I'm just going to make a point to hang out near windows and outside.

Baby steps.