Almost there, but not quite

I have a love-hate relationship with this time of the year.  On the love side - the sunny days, the fresh air flowing through my open windows, the fact that my birthday, and hence, summer, is right around the corner, the anticipation of a much needed break, and this year, a trip to the beach.  On the hate side - the mind-blowing frenzied crescendo to the end of the school year, make-up work pouring in due to unbelievable amounts of student absences, fitting in the last of the curriculum in far fewer days than should be allotted, final exams, things piling up at home, and this year, the speech that is hanging over my head.

Really, I don't remember any other year being quite this bad.  At school or at home.  So let me think of what is different.

I didn't start the school year until November due to maternity leave, so I got off to a slower start.  We missed five (or six?) days of school dues to the blizzard in February.  I now have two active and into everything and attention getting kids to keep up with, one of whom has realized that if she finds and hands me her shoes on a nice day, we will probably go outside to play, thereby leaving any housework for another time.  And this speech.

I think, really, the difference is this speech.  Once it is written, and especially once it has been given, I am pretty sure that I will feel much better.  It is funny how I have so much to say when no one is listening.  I can just go on and on and on.  But put me in a situation in which I have to get it right the first time because I probably will never see my audience again, knowing that I have learned SO much over the last 15 years and that I couldn't possibly summarize it in ten minutes, knowing that I have the chance to say something that might, just might, honestly affect even one person's life, and that everyone in the room is going to be listening to me...that changes the game for me in a big way.

So I am going to keep doing what I am doing until it is done.  And that is - getting through each day of work, play, cleaning, cooking, shopping, running, and stressing about this speech as I attempt time and time again to write it.  Come June 9th, it will be over and nothing but a memory.  Hopefully, it will be a good memory.  But it will definitely be done.  And then, let summer begin.