#teachingishard

Sometimes I think about the ridiculous amount of work that Hogwarts professors have to do. There are supposedly about 1,000 students at Hogwarts in an academic year. While I believe O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. grades determine what classes year 6 and 7 students take, it's still statistically possible for a core-subject professor to teach all 1,000 students. That's 1,000 names and faces to remember every year.

So, you're a core-subject professor at Hogwarts, and you either teach 1/2 of each class at once or the entire class at once. If you teach each group of students once a week, you're teaching 7-14 classes a week. If you see each group of students twice a week, you're teaching 14-28 classes a week.

First year(s) teaching is like training for 4-5 years to run a marathon, only to actually be running the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. 

You feel nervous, but the first 30 miles feel okay! Awesome, right? Now KEEP running 30 miles. Then another. Then another. Then another...

You’re dehydrated. You’re cramping. You’re wondering when you’ll have time to refuel and even go to the bathroom. You’re probably crying and lying on the pavement, wondering why you weren’t prepared for this.

A senior teacher scrapes your body off the ground and helps you run 30 more miles. Then another. Then another. Then another...

Those breaks at the end of each day don’t feel real. You hurt in places you didn’t know existed, cry some more, then scold yourself for crying, because now you have to hydrate again.

The bystanders who have only just come in during the 2,000th mile of the race wonder why you sound like you’re hacking up a lung as you wheeze your way past them. They shout at your back and tell you that anyone can do what you’re doing, so do better. 

So you run another 30 miles. Then another. Then another. Then another...

The last 500 miles of the race feel like freedom. You fought for it; you bled for it; and by shit, you’re going to conquer it.

Crossing that finish line is the most beautiful feeling in the world. It means you won; and you can now, blessedly, take a break.

Only this break is time spent healing and recovering your mind and body from all the trauma it experienced over the last 3100 miles; and knowing you’re about to do it again.