The Talk of the Middle School

My job is somewhat isolated.  I work in two schools that are about 20 miles apart.  I spend my mornings at the middle school, pack up as quickly as humanly possible, run around the building doing last minute tasks and then head off to my second station of the day.

 

Home #1

My middle school classroom doesn't get as much love (or junk...)

I only spend about 2 hours here per day and share it with other teachers.

 

Home #2

Can you tell I teach Spanish?

This is the closest thing to my "home" and it's all to myself!

This is my 4th year teaching and despite that I get along well with practically all of my coworkers, I really don't have many close friends at work.  The fact that I'm running from one building to the next definitely limits my socializing time.  Additionally, I don't reside in either town that I teach in - I live about 40 minutes away from the both of them.  So when the school day is over, you don't find me sticking around usually.  I can't exactly run home for a couple of hours and come back for a game or something else.

So needless to say, after we returned to work after Christmas break, I didn't tell anyone that Adam and I had gotten engaged.  My coworkers know that Adam exists and have met him at various times at Christmas parties and Prom (I'm the Prom sponsor so he comes and braves the scaffolding for me!), but for some reason I didn't feel like there was ever an appropriate time to tell my coworkers my news.

So Friday at work, a coworker had realized that I had my nails done.  They were just the cheap glue-on ones, but I had the urge and bought some at the store the other day.   I took a huge leap and told her it was to show off my new ring.  She grabbed my hand and gave me a big hug and kept saying 'Congratulations girl!'  There were a couple of other teachers around as well that gave me their words of congratulations too.

I guess I would say that it was reassuring.  That teaching can get really lonely when you are with the kids all day and then work all evening to get stuff ready for the kids for the next day.  It was nice to have people be happy for me and for me to realize that I'm not alone as I sometimes feel.

Later, another teacher came over and asked to see my ring as she had heard the news.  It just so happened that there was a GIANT group of 7th grade girls standing by at the same time.  So after showing my ring to about 20 people, the word spread like wildfire.  Students kept coming up to me throughout the morning asking to see my ring and saying "Ooh, it's pretty!"

(I had the worst time trying to photograph this ring!)

I ended up telling my homeroom students that I actually had gotten engaged over Christmas break.  They were quite disappointed that I had not told them sooner.

I'm pretty sure that everyone in the middle school knows now.  The kids probably did most of the work for me.  I feel bad in not telling people my news, but I also know that I am awkward and I don't really like to make things about myself a lot.  I have an awful time with accepting compliments; I usually meet them with sarcasm and have a hard time taking credit for something when I do it well.

Now I just have to tell my coworkers at the high school...

Has anyone else had a hard time sharing their engagement news at work?