Vader

Mrs. Rackley, do you like Star Wars? 

I love Star Wars!

Me too! Who’s your favorite character?

I really love Darth Vader.

Me too! Hey can I call you Mrs. Vader now?

Sure.

I thought I’d never hear another word about it, but he shows up for library two days later and immediately calls me Mrs. Vader and instructs me to call him Lord Vader.

Whatcha gonna do??

It is strong in that little fellow. He’ll be one to watch grow for sure. Oh…and in case you didn’t know, the new Star Wars movie comes out December 15!

Life has gotten extremely chaotic of late. College courses are stinking hard and time-consuming and stressful. So…I have an embarassing confession to make. I had to do a PowerPoint for one of my classes – never done one of those before…isn’t that sad? But I’m a quick study and I figured it out. Honestly, I’m doing lots of things I haven’t done before…like using Bibme and WorldCat. Don’t know what those are? I didn’t either. Now I know.

My saving grace is that I’m taking these classes with two other teachers. One is 26, the other mid-30’s, and then there’s me…the late 40 something. They have taught me so much…and without eye-rolls. I’m not sure what I offer our little group…so I try to make them laugh and be encouraging. That’s about all I’ve got in my repertoire.

Have you ever gotten so busy that you look up and wonder who you are? I know that sounds a little silly…but think…I’m a teacher, a mom, a wife, a student, a friend…but who am I when I’m just me? Am I just a mixture of all those things or is there, somewhere in the mix, another person? Why is it I only feel lost when I’m so busy? Is that when I don’t have time to do the things that ease me…like write, go walking and go to my Wednesday night study group (which I have done very little of since school started back)?

Since I’m too busy to enjoy the things that make me feel more like myself, I’ll take on the persona of Mrs. Vader for a while. Mrs. Vader is going to need some serious gumption to get through the next few weeks…that and a black cape, a mask to hide behind, and one seriously wicked light saber to kick some life stress to the curb.