One student is still working on her final exam. Everybody else has finished and gone home. This student has been struggling all semester, and I hate to hurry her, and I won’t hurry her. She can have all the time she needs.

But golly gee whiz, Hub and I are going to a party tonight and I’d really like to get there on time. . . .

Sigh. Struggle on, student. I will wait for you. Even if it takes forever.

We haven’t been to a party for a long time. I’ve really been looking forward to this one. It got postponed once, because of the snowstorm, but it’s definitely on for tonight. I can’t wait to get there!

And, she’s not going to finish by the official end of the class. It’s supposed to be over in fifteen minutes but she won’t be done by then. It’s not really that difficult a test; it’s just the kind that requires tedious research. If she would turn around and use the computer that’s directly behind her, she might be able to research faster, but she’s one of the many students I have who is not familiar with computers, and is too fearful to use one. She’s got a little dictionary, and her notes, and her textbook, and is faithfully doing the job that way. I’m not going to hurry her.

I made my party-food contribution early this morning, just in case this happened. I had a premonition.

On the bright side, I’ve graded, recorded, and averaged everyone else’s grade in this class while she’s working, so that’s a few things I won’t have to do this weekend.

In fact, I’ve averaged all my classes’ grades. All I have to do now is record them on the college website, and I can’t do that on this computer because once I’m in that site, I have to completely finish, including a printout, because it won’t let me back in again after a grade’s been entered. And the printer in this classroom isn’t working today. I’ll do it Saturday.

There will be killer euchre tournaments at the party tonight. Oh, we are a wild bunch! I’m a terrible euchre player but I love to play. Nobody ever wants to be my partner after watching a round or two, though. Imagine. You trump your partner’s ace a few times and everybody’s a critic.

This poor student keeps watching the clock. I know she feels bad about keeping me here so late, but really, it’s okay. That is what I’m here for. It’s my job. She’s a little slow, well, I will wait for her. She is genuinely trying, and that means a lot to me. I hope she does well, because she really needs a good grade. This exam will determine if she passes this class or not; students must earn a C in order to qualify for the next class up. Lower than a C and they must take this class again. She’s borderline, and I know she’s a nervous wreck thinking about that while she’s writing out her answers. Just a few wrong answers on this one test, and she has to take the entire class over again. That’s pressure, my friends.

I’m glad I wore my red sweater to school today, it’s Christmassy; I won’t have a chance to take a shower again or change my clothes, but I took a shower this morning so I shouldn’t be TOO foul. Maybe I’ll just go straight to the party and have Hub meet me there. Oh, but then we’d have two vehicles in town. Oh, I’ll just go home and get the food and we’ll drive in together. There’s not much parking space there anyway.

Oh man, she’s on the last page. . . . .

My sweet elderly people who do genealogy research in our computer lab on Tuesday afternoons will be there. One of the gentlemen was telling us a few weeks ago about an Elvis Presley record his wife used to have that she absolutely loved, and that he could not find anywhere on cd. I couldn’t find it either, and then, when I finally did, it turned out to be one of those rarities that costs megabucks on Ebay and Amazon.

So I did what any evil pirate would do: I downloaded all the tracks one by one and burned a cd for him. He’s going to be at the party tonight and I can’t wait to give it to him.

She’s closing her books. She’s gathering up her things. SHE’S FINISHED! YAY!

I’ll be home in a half hour. It’s party time tonight!

I hope all of you have enjoyable weekends too.

Oh wait. She wants me to grade it and average her scores. Okay, I will. I’m already late anyway so what the hey.

She did it. Barely, but she did it.

You should have seen her face as she hugged that test and left the room. Those of you who teach have seen it before, but it’s always brand new every time.

It’s why we love our jobs.