​Part of the reason for my entering the world of education was my infinite love of children. This year my dream came true and I became manager and mummy to nineteen, nine year olds. Every day I return home with letters, poems that don’t rhyme and the laughter-inducing memories about something silly that someone said. Without fail, every day as I leave the school premises my heart swells six times that of its usual size.
Another bounty with which I am blessed is the countless hugs that embrace me every morning and afternoon. The pleas of “please may I carry/do that for you” ring in my ears. Needless to say with majority of kids being kinesthetic learners, I come into a lot of physical contact.
Now I’m not much if a germaphobe but when words like “contagious” and “infectious” and “epidemic” mentioned I do tend to cringe away from their eager embraces.
During my first week I was told about an uncontrolled lice outbreak in which the school had to shut down for a week until its hair was deemed parasite-free.
Now every time I so much as get a tingle on my head I immediately smear mayonnaise into my hair.
Then came the day when nearly every child complained of excruciating stomach cramps. Not half an hour before school was to dismiss six of them started vomitting. My sympathetic gag-reflex worked overtime!
When I thought we had, had enough sickness for one year a girl came up to me and said, “Look at the big bumps on my neck.”
Hello mumps. Naturally upon informing the class of the symptoms nearly everyone declared that they too were feeling feverish and was struggling to swallow. Call me paranoid but I too cannot help but probe my glands for the slightest sign of swelling.
Here’s hoping this isn’t the start of a school – wide epidemic!
Yours in germ – safe distance,
_Quixotic Novelist
Quixotic Novelist 