back in the day, i was an umpire. i loved it. i got to hang out in the sunshine (sometimes the pouring rain, sometimes the terrible wind, sometimes the bitter cold, but in my brain i like to think it was always pleasantly sunny), watch some kids play one of my favorite sports, and i got paid $20 an hour, which is a better wage than i ever expect to be paid in the future. i was understanding of the girls and they were understanding of me. i wasn't too hard on them, so they weren't too hard on me.
the worst thing, though--easily the most terrible part of the job, hands down--was the parents. "OH UMP HOW CAN YOU CALL THAT A STRIKE!" "WHAT?! FAIR?!" "THAT'S AN INFIELD FLY IF I'VE EVER SEEN ONE, UMP!"
i was 16-18 years old. these were grown adults. oddly, although they had the years and the potential for wisdom with them, they lost perspective on the game way more often than the girls. the parents got so invested and acted like everything was so serious. yeah, i had some overly invested girls, but for the most part, they knew what they were in for, they knew when they messed up, they knew when i messed up, and we never got in huge fights. a lot of the umpires for that league--me included--will say they did it entirely because the girls were great and entirely in spite of the sometimes horrid parents.
my students here in thailand are phenomenal. some of them have way more potential and drive than i ever have, and some of them are way smarter than me, a lot of them far more charismatic, and about three quarters of them are genuinely good people. (you can't win'em all and i think 75 percent is a pretty good chunk.) they are the reason i absolutely love teaching here.
let's see if you can connect the dots and see where i'm going right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment