Unexpected

Spring break is next week and I have already noticed that my mind keeps wandering to the central Oregon trip I will be making with my family.  I’ve started checking what the weather will be while we are there, making mental notes of things I don’t want to forget, and I even got out a couple of suitcases last night (although I fell asleep before putting a single item inside either one).  I know that the same thing is on the mind of all my coworkers at school, so it only makes sense that the question “What are you doing for spring break?” has been echoing around the halls this week.

I was warming up my lunch in the microwave in the community room this afternoon and chatting with the others in the room about-what else-spring break.  As the aroma of chicken soup started to fill my nostrils, I asked one of the fifth graders who was in the room, “What are you going to do during spring break?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders in typical 10-year-old fashion.  “I think I might just go to the mountains and…”

My mind anticipated all the possible and plausible things she might say: play in the snow, go sledding, go hiking, go skiing, visit my grandma.

“…play with my goat.”  She said it so matter-of-factly, like everyone goes to the mountains to play with their goat when there is a break.  It was the last thing I expected to come out of her mouth, and apparently the other teacher in the room felt the same way.  We both burst out laughing before asking her to explain, which she did.  Her goat lives at her grandparents’ house, and her grandparents live in the mountains, thus her spring break plans to “go to the mountains and play with my goat.”

Here’s to a happy and restful spring break for teachers and students alike!