The Intern

The First Day Back

Lauren took one final glance in the mirror, straightening out every piece of clothing and adjusting a few strands of hair out of her face. She wore a tight black skirt that ended just above her knees, a simple white blouse, a light blue cardigan, and a pair of black heels. Today was her first day back at her job and she wanted to look presentable. It had been over a year since Lauren had taught a class, for reasons Lauren chose to push deep down into the back of her mind, and to say that she was happy to return was an understatement.

Lauren was ecstatic.

Ever since high school Lauren knew she wanted to become a math teacher. Which she knows sounds strange to some people, but she didn't care. There was just something about math that intrigued her so much. Every equation was like a little puzzle to her and there was nothing in the world as satisfying as working all sorts of complex problems to find the correct answer. For Lauren, the harder the equation was, the better.

Not only did Lauren dream about teaching math, she wanted to be the best teacher she could possibly be. She was tired of seeing teachers nonchalantly teach lessons, disregarding if their students truly understood the content. More than anything Lauren wanted to inspire students to try their hardest in everything they did, especially their studies. She had a deep appreciation for her students and wanted the best for each and every one of them. Therefore she swore to have the patience, time, and determination for any student who needed help, even if it meant she had to be a little hard on them at times.

"Shit." Lauren cursed looking at her watch.

Quickly she grabbed her bag and keys and hurried out the door. Being late on her first day back was not an option.

———

"And there we go." Lauren spoke to herself as she examined what she had just written on the white board for her students to see.

In the bright red Expo marker wrote "Welcome to Senior Calculus. Miss Jauregui."

Lauren returned back to her desk which sat in the left, back corner of the classroom, straightening a few things and ensuring she had everything she needed for the first day.

A bright smile appeared on her face as students slowly began to file into the classroom one by one. She greeted each of them with a friendly "hello" which some returned and some did not.

Lauren waited a few minutes until after the bell that signaled the beginning of class rang, just in case any students had lost their way, it was common on the first day, so she chose to be lenient.

"Well good morning class! My name is Miss Jauregui and I will be your teacher for Senior Calculus this semester. Some of you may recognize me, some of you may not, I have taught here before, but chose to take last year off due to a family incident. But I'm back now, and I'm excited to teach and get to know all of you!" She spoke as she simultaneously walked to the front of the classroom.

She wasn't surprised to get a poor, if any response back. She very well knew the majority of students were not excited to be back in school, let alone excited to be taking calculus. Nevertheless, she kept a positive attitude despite all the blank faces staring directly back at her.

Lauren hadn't forgotten the anxious feeling she could sometimes experience from being in front of so many eyes. After all, she wasn't that far off from her students in age. Lauren had only been teaching a couple years before her time off and she had chosen to teach senior math, finding it more advanced and exciting to teach, and high schoolers a bit more mature and tolerable than little kids.

She could sometimes feel uncomfortable from the silence of her students, but ignored it because she was confident the ice just needed to be broken,  her students and her would fall into the routine and become more comfortable with each other, it would just take a couple of days.