When...?!

There has got to be an easier way.
My only coherent thought on the eve of my first major teaching assignment.
I would like to go to sleep now and wake up in a year or so to find myself a tough, experienced professional. With a look that can kill.
I simply cannot believe that after 5,757 years of human innovation, no one has come up with an alternate route to becoming experienced. It is my new goal in life. When I accept my Nobel, I will let you, my faithful readers, know so that you can proudly say "I knew her when..."

Until then, I sit quaking in the corner of the teachers' room, marveling at the Veteran Teacher. You'd know her in an instant: The poised woman clutching the gallon-sized coffee cup in one hand and practically untouched curriculum guide in the other. When she turns her green eyes toward you, you want to disappear and find it difficult to resist a sudden, irrational urge to apologize. Finally, after the student who had been standing behind you slinks away, you are astounded to see her gaze soften and the wicked smile turn friendly: You are one of us now. It must be true because she said so.

(Possibly to be continued. First I need to go whip the kids... um, prepare lessons.)