A little middle-school of me, maybe...

I've written before about how frustrated I am when someone tells me how young I look.  I KNOW.  Got it.  Thanks.  Before conferences, I agonized in this post about my attempt to pick out an outfit that makes me look my age at the very least.  So, as you can see I am very self-aware of how I appear to my students and their parents, and do my best to at least look my age at school MOST of the time.  Anyways, the other night I came straight from the gym to meet my dad at costco for some shopping.  (There's something about buying wholesale in bulk that just gets me excited!!)  In true post-workout fashion, I had a scrubbed, make-up free face, a ponytail of sweaty hair, and sweats on.  No problem for a grocery store run!  (Sorry, Stacey and Clinton, but we don't ALL feel the need to get dolled up for grocery shopping!)

Well...then I spotted one of my former students and her mother walking towards me and my dad!  The mature, adult, professional thing of me to do would have been to go up to them with a big smile and say, "What a surprise!  How have you been, Mrs. Student's Mother?" I'd like to say I did that...but suddenly I was all too self-aware of the fact that I was dressed like a slob, appeared about 12 years old, and was shopping with my daddy.  Ummm...maybe NOT the best moment to be schmoozing parents!

So obviously, I took the MATURE, middle-schoolish approach...avoided eye contact and walked away QUICKLY before either of them could realize that this young girl had been the daughter's TEACHER last year!  Oh my...