Psychology has long been an interest of mine. I took some classes in high school and college and found it fascinating to try and figure out what was going on in someone’s mind. As a teacher, it can be a critical skill.
Part of psychology can deal with childhood experiences and how they impact your life as an adult. There are certainly the traumatic moments that can scar a child and take years of counseling to overcome. I didn’t have any of those, but I had a repeated experience every year which caused me to despise MEA break.
First, let me clarify. I know it’s technically not MEA break anymore since the Minnesota Education Association changed its name to Education Minnesota.
I think any of us who grew up in an era where we had “MEA break” will always call it that. EM break just doesn’t have the same ring.
You would think I would look forward to this as one of my “many” paid vacations. (Please note the sarcasm in that statement.) However, I have those recurring childhood memories that have ruined MEA break forever.
Every year, my dad would take that entire week off work for “vacation.” This vacation consisted of spending Monday through Wednesday in some woods, owned by a family member, cutting down trees.
Once we were out of school on Wednesday, we spent the rest of the weekend with him out in the woods “making wood,” as we called it. We’d help Dad cut up the trees and stack logs in the truck and trailer and make repeated trips home to unload.
Some of these were big logs that Dad and I would then have to put on the woodsplitter to make more manageable. My immense strength was certainly useful in these situations, but my sisters wouldn’t even try if they didn’t have to.
It was usually cold enough to wear heavier jackets, which would be shed as soon as we started working hard. Or as soon as we slipped away and explored the woods and the river that ran through it. I even remember some snowfall, which really made it fun.
I’m not sure how many broken blades Dad had on the chainsaw or how many profanities he uttered over the years when the tree wouldn’t drop the right direction. I do know that I had to work hard for four days of my vacation, which turned out to be no vacation at all.
We don’t have a woodburning stove in our house, so my children escape this cruel torture from my childhood.
I do have appointments scheduled during MEA break, so we’ll stay busy, but nothing too strenuous. Still, I feel this involuntary shudder every year when I look at the school calendar and see MEA, er, EM break in October.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is sesquipedalianist, which is a person who uses long, unusual, sometimes obscure words in speech or writing, such as, “Mr. Domeier showed he was a true sesquipedalianist by using large words nobody had heard of in his column.” Thanks again to Tali Wayne for this word. Hey, wait, are you trying to tell me something? Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!