Did you laugh today? I did.

Today was the first day of school. First day in a middle school this large is nuts. 3rd Period did not happen until 1:15 after 5th period. Yep it was like that. My feet & head hurt. There was a snake in the hall before students got here. But it pretty went smoothly.

My goal today was only one thing: enjoy it and laugh. Sounds simple, but we get so wound up in the first day “must get procedures, count the kids, teach them who is boss, etc.” and the rest of the stress of first day that we forget to enjoy the kids. We forget to laugh. I read this blog post last night before I fell asleep and was reminded that students are just as stressed and anxious as us.

So I laughed. I laughed when someone passed gas in 2nd period. I laughed when I told kids who couldn’t find “Mrs. Dykes” that she was the pretty one, and then again when they figured it out. I laughed when we made bets over how many kids would come in late because they went to the wrong room. I laughed we had no idea when to go to lunch. I laughed at the lunch. I laughed. I had to. The kids laughed. They needed to. They needed to know it was OK to enjoy school.

If you haven’t started school yet, on your first day please remember to laugh. I may need someone to remind me by Friday! As the wise Jimmy Buffett says, “if we couldn’t laugh, we’d all go insane.”