My Job Contract Should Have Come With a Warning Label

When I was handed my job contract as director of enrollment at a local high school, it should have come with a big, red WARNING stamped across each page. The top ten warnings should have read:

1. Warning - You will no longer have only four children. You will gain at least 650 more.

2. Warning - You are not simply enrolling students into a school, you are admitting them into your life.

3. Warning - You will build relationships with said children, and with their parents, grandparents and siblings. They will entrust you with intimate details of their lives. Treat them with care.

4. Warning - When you leave the school campus, your job will not end.

5. Warning - Your private life may not be so private any more. You will see students at the grocery store, the mall, concerts, and even on vacation.

6. Warning - Because your son goes to this high school, you will have students entering your home from morning until evening. Some of them may set up semi-residence.

7. Warning - You will never sleep the same again. Students will infiltrate your dreams and wake you from worry-filled nightmares.

8. Warning - High school students will surprise you, disappoint you and exceed your expectations, often all in the same day.

9. Warning - When tragedy or disaster befalls one of these 650 students, your heart will break into a million tiny pieces.

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10. Warning - There is no end to this role. You signed up for it. It will last a lifetime. Long after a student graduates, moves away or passes on, you will find their names engraved into your heart.