This sweet contraption you see in the picture above is my old-lady driving pillow.  (My students think I'm anywhere from 18 to 118 years old.  I generally tell them I'm 85 or older.)  I guess those 85 years have put a lot of stress and strain on my neck because I have to position this pillow behind my back every time I drive to fix my posture.  On a related note, I don't think it's a coincidence that I developed all this neck pain soon after I started teaching.  

Today, for example, was a really rough day.  My lessons went off without a hitch, but I had to learn some really upsetting news about a few students.  I turned to my signature coping mechanism to deal: cried on the drive home and took a nap.  Seriously, a major in education does not prepare you for stuff like this.  Planning lessons and communicating with parents?  Yes.  Helping students cope with tragedy? Definitely not.  I would hope that I could offer them something more helpful than "try crying and taking a nap" but I'm at a loss.  In other words, this is one of those times I have to really trust that God knew what he was doing when he put me in this position.