Smitty has the Face of an Angel

Did I ever tell you about the time I fainted?

No, fainted for realz, yo!  (Side note: did you like how I managed to properly punctuate that?)

I did.  Not one of those I-am-fainting-because-a-kid-just-blew-my-mind faints, but a real oh-good-lord-what-is-happening faints.

I had been at the school for about a month.  I was always busy since it was my first real contract and ALL the classes I was teaching (English 9, ESL, Comm 11/12) were new to me as I had just moved up from middle school.

It was a Tuesday, second week of October...

So, la-te-da, I am bustling about trying to get all my ESL responsibilities dealt with so I can start tracking properly.  One item I needed to cross off my list was to go over my Annual Education Plans with the Principal. 

However, on this particular day, I am very tired. (I probably didn't get a good night's sleep--which is common for me.)  I am also very stressed.  (Again, common.) I am feeling a little spaced out. (Some might tell me this is also common for me, and I would call these people butts.)

I am working on a computer in the teacher's prep room which is a floor below the office.  I am feeling so awful that I am thinking about going home (there is another block plus lunch before I teach, more than enough time to get a TOC in).  For some reason though, I try to stick it out.

I do the following:
1. Make a cup of lemon zinger tea.
2. Go to the washroom.
3. Breathe deeply.
4. Try to stay busy.

I figure it is a case of mind over matter: don't think about feeling sick = not feeling sick.

In the process of completing task #4, I run upstairs to make an appoitment with the Principal's administrative assistant to see the Principal regarding the AEPs.  Tea in hand, I am speaking with Ms. PAA (who is lovely by the way) trying to make said appointment. 

Out of no where, the room begins to spin.  Am I stuck inside a twister? Auntie Em? I wonder.  I say, "Oh, I feel really dizzy," to Ms. PAA as I lean one hand on her desk.

Before she gets around the desk to save me, however, I am travelling down a tunnel of un-love heading straight to the floor.  According to witnesses, I went staright back and landed with a thump--which was confirmed by the rump for days following--managing not to crack my head open because of an empty box.  Bless that box!

So, fainted as I was, I am having a marvelous time.  I am in an I-Pod commerical.  You know: the one with the bright colour outlines when the rest is black? Sadly, I can't remember the song.  I do remember having people calling my name and being really annoyed that I was going to have to wake up.

I opened my eyes.  There was Smitty, leaning over me.  He was my grade 11 Social Studies teacher and, now, my respected colleague.  He has the face of an angel.  He was looking down on me, so concerned.  All I could think of to say was, "Smitty...What the HELL happened?"

"You fainted," Smitty calmly replied.

"I did?!?!" I cried preplexedly.

Anyway, the story kind of becomes less interesting from there.  I cried because I was scared--however, I cry all the time so that wasn't new.  I had to leave the school in an ambulance, freaking out some students.  I was told there was nothing seriously wrong with me.

"It was a vasal-vagal faint.  Please do not come back next time it happens," the doctor told me.  He also added that if you don't faint before you turned 25, you probably never would.  I was 23; just my luck!

Anyway, if I learned anything from this experience, it would have to be that Smitty has the face of an angel.

Oh, and before I forget, the absolute worst part of this was not the I fainted in the middle of the office in my first MONTH of being here and will NEVER live it down; it was that the paramedics thought I peed myself because I spilled that lemon zinger all over myself as I fell, leaving me wet for the rest of the day.