{She Said} It's Mine!

I don’t share well.

Is this a problem I developed as a first born? Probably.

Is this problem exacerbated by people not valuing my stuff as much as I do? Absolutely.

Two recent examples:
1. I brought my copy of Shrek on the Austin trip for the students to watch on the bus. On the way back from Austin, one of the other teachers asked if they could borrow it since they had exhausted the movies they had brought. Didn’t think twice and just handed it over. That night, as I was getting ready to leave, I was asking for my movie and the teacher I loaned it to realized it had been left on the bus (which had driven away about 5 minutes before) because it wasn’t communicated that the movie wasn’t the bus driver’s movie but my own and so it was forgotten.

2. I loaned my packing tape dispenser to another teacher during TAKS week so they could easily cover some (probably completely unrelated to the test) materials on the wall. It never came back to me despite the e-mail (that made me look like a you know what) I sent to the entire staff asking who had borrowed it and if I could get it back. I’m pretty sure that person is reading that e-mail thinking “I would just hate it if I lost my red packing tape dispenser; I use this thing all the time.”

These aren’t great examples of people abusing my stuff and returning it but they obviously don’t value it as MINE. And here I am not making mention of the markers I have loaned that come back with pushed-in tips, colored pencil bins returned with only yellows and browns, and ripped up books. I’m over it, so get used to my not sharing and resent me if you like.