We had our first department meeting today, and I started really loving my job again. I get so detached from the other English people in my room across the universe from the rest of the high school teachers that I lose perspective and descend into this scary pit-like place where most of my lessons are disappointing and I'm not connecting the kids with the literature as much as I should/want (I'm not sure if "could" is allowed on this list yet...I feel like the problem actually lies in the way I am doing all that I can, and it's not good enough). But talking with other teachers and discovering that they all feel that way to one degree or another, at least some of the time, gives me hope and a modicum of peace that my work-harried life had been lacking as of late. I have a great tangent about my perception of my performance versus my colleagues' perception of it, but that one will have to wait for another night, and perhaps a different journal, since it's past my bedtime and tomorrow is a school day. (I was telling my seniors today about the three-day weekends I used to have in college all the time when I got to make my own schedule. Sigh.)