A Quiet Life

Life when I was teaching was loud. The bells were loud, the kids were loud (I let them work in groups a lot, and there were a few in every bunch who could only speak at one volume), the news channel at the start of the day was loud, the traffic duty at the end of the day was loud (amazing how difficult it is to keep some parents from running over their own offspring, and how loudly they yell at you for trying). I often returned to my apartment, late in the evening after detention/cleanup duty, closed the door behind me, and relished the silence. Now I get that silence at home on a daily basis. We do not watch TV. Our videos come on the laptops, if we watch them. The radio is turned to a low volume, if it is on. We can hear the natural world through our open windows. I like this life.