Teachers are People Too

Last night my hubby and I had to run to the grocery store. We needed to scoop up the weekly sales and get some items for this week's meals. We were shopping, laughing, commenting on the big sales of the week, complimenting ourselves for having coupons that matched up with the BOGOs of the week, and generally having a nice evening. Once in the spaghetti/pasta sauce aisle, we had the strangest experience ever in a grocery store. There in the aisle was one of my students. Now, as I have confessed before, when I am out in public, seeing my students is always a little awkward because usually we have nothing to talk about. If it is a student that I currently teach, I have been known to turn a little red, wave hello awkwardly and then try to walk away. There are some of my students that I can talk to quite easily (most of it is because they are graduates and I want to catch up with them). However, when this student saw me, they stopped in the middle of the aisle, which of course forced us to stop in the middle of the aisle. Thankfully that aisle was relatively empty. She pulls out her CAMERA and says (I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING ON THIS ONE) "Wow, I have to take a picture of this. I cannot believe you shop at Publix. Teachers really are real people....like to see you outside of school is so weird" I felt like an exhibit at the freak show. I felt like a tour guide should be saying (in a British accent), "And over here we have the rare species called 'Teacherus Historicus' thought to only have a life INSIDE of the school building but hides out in a cave during the evening hours or when not at the school." She had us POSE in the aisle for the picture and then walked away. It was by far one of the strangest experiences of my life. So, there we stood with the cart in Ryan's grip and a jar of Hunt's tomato sauce in my hands and it took all we had in us to keep from laughing. So, if you ever see a picture of me on a poster for a freak show...you will now know why.