I Am President

No, seriously.

I'm president of the PTA at our elementary school. Next year. Well, one of two -- I'm co-president.

I could say "oh, I don't know how this happened," and "they asked and I just couldn't say no," but I do, and I could have. The fact is that someone came up with this idea during one of the most stressful weeks of this school year for me, the week of the spring book fair, which followed right on the heels of the school auction, in which I'd played an active role, and even though my first thought was "hell no!," my second thought was "Me? They want me? They think I'd be a good president?" It was like I was transported straight back to high school and had won a big old popularity contest. In fact, no one else wanted the job, and while I was told I had a month to think about it before I committed, as the days ticked by and I didn't say no, never mind, forget it, it pretty much became official. And now I'm stuck.

I don't know if I'm going to like it or not. Like every district in California, we are facing big budget cuts due to the state budget crisis, and starting next week, we have to start hammering out the PTA budget for next year. Probably some people will complain about stuff, but I guess I can handle that. My co-president is someone who knows me well and I think we'll work well together. In any case, I don't see myself going, you know, mad with power or anything. And the flattery part probably won't last very long. I just hope I'm not cursing my decision to do this by the time school starts in the fall...