Sunday, April 5, 2009

A Toro is not just a snowblower...


So, after taking a full year to take and pass my teaching exams, pull together my paperwork, get my fingerprints sent to the Dept. of Justice and FBI, get my forearm pumped with a "bubble" to confirm I didn't have tubercuolosis, and re-discover that I DID take a college level math class (thank goodness for those official transcripts!),  I have been accepted into a teaching program at Cal State University (Dominguez Hills).  The bottom of my acceptance letter said "GO TOROS!"

Huh? Go snowblowers?! 

Where I come from, a Toro is the trusted red snowblower that gets pulled out of the garage when the winter white stuff hits the pavement [I believe they also make lawnmowers too but somehow Toros remind me of just the snowblowers].

Anyway, I had shown the acceptance letter to Air Boss and told him, "somehow the acceptance thrill isn't quite the same as my undergrad acceptance."  Maybe I'm getting old and the emotions are wearing down.  Maybe I'm already old and the thrill and excitement of life just isn't there anymore.

Nonetheless, my level of excitement was short-lived as I quickly logged on to my newly activated student account and looked at the summer class schedule.  For the entire months of June, July and August, I'll have 16 hours of classroom instruction each week.  I'll get the last week of August off before the fall semester begins (yippee skippy - not).

I gave my children and husband sad kisses good-bye and tearful "it was nice knowing you" hugs.  I won't be able to sit down and eat dinner with them this summer and I won't be able to tuck my kids in bed at night.  If Air Boss and the kids go camping, most likely they'll have to go without me.  I didn't realize the sacrifices of teaching would start so soon.

"Can't you delay your start until the fall?"  Air Boss had asked me.

"Summer, fall, spring - I'm going to have to take these classes sometime," I countered.

"What's the big rush?  Aren't 10,000 teachers going to get laid off?"

Hmmm . . . pretty hard to argue with that logic.

Anyway, classes aside, I now know (as the brilliant scholar that I am now) that the Toros have nothing to do with blowing snow.  Yes, if it weren't for my years of high school Spanish--or more truthfully in this case, the obvious school mascot--I would still be scratching my head about the "Go Toros!" shout out.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

In my world, "toro" means yummy fatty tuna belly!! Maybe that thought will help your study to be a little more digestible!

Congrats!

Unknown said...

you should watch "Bring It On" to get you into the Toro spirit ;)