Final_Draft_v3.2

Living Among the Oxymorons

“We live our lives filled with wild contradictions”

David Berliner

It’s fairly clear I’m an oxymoron.

Or at least, I live among them.

This morning, as we tried to leave the house, my daughter told me she was “nearly done”.

Sadly, we were already late.

And anyway, that phrase never means what I want it to mean.

As we drove in, she advised me to act naturally in front of her friends, which was probably unwise, as it usually only encourages me.

Later, at school, I struggled to get my laptop to sync with the Apple TV.

To fix it, they told me to turn it off… and then turn it back on. Sure. Strangely, that seems to be the answer to so many things these days.

I’m not sure when I started noticing them…

pretty ugly (after some school-bus drama), same difference (she retorted), open secret (it was, apparently), organised chaos (describing my desk)…

Then there was the student talking about their Extended Essay, keen to point out that essays were already extended. Another asked about their service requirements. Was it service, or a requirement?

And then I asked a student if she was ready to hand in her final draft.

She laughed.

Then handed it to me.

v3.2

It turns out that to finish,

you sometimes have to keep going.

Which, I suppose, is one way of living among the oxymorons.