One field trip is not such a big deal, but why was it so upsetting?
I guess it's because as an educator you're always trying to hold it altogether. You're trying to welcome every child every day. You're trying to smooth the rough spots of student conflict, children's troubles, and social/academic challenge. You hope to plan a good lesson for every class and respond to student work in a timely manner. You want an organized classroom, collegial collaboration, and forward movement with regard to new research and effort. You want to do it right.
Then when a challenge presents, like an overdue field trip payment which results in a lost opportunity, you're frustrated--frustrated that the system couldn't help out and cut a check, frustrated that you forgot to collect the money ahead of time when your original plan for collecting funds was not accepted, and frustrated that, for some reason, you never received the reminders from the theater company.
In light of things, this is small potatoes. But in the future, I'll have to rethink where I put the energy and time, and where I don't. None of us are superhuman and we can't do it all. Error happens. Support is not always there. Onward.
