Workroom Secrets

For the past week and a half, I have spent most of my afternoons in the workroom. The copy machine and I have been bonding. I think that the laminator and cutter are a little jealous but I will more than make up for that tomorrow.

Anyway, I have found myself running into a man in there almost daily. We seem to hit the machine at the same time (randomly) and out of nowhere, we have been getting to know each other. In fact, before last week, all we had ever done was said hello in passing. He teaches fifth grade and I teach first. What I find funny about it all is a conversation we had late last week. We usually just chit chat and swap "war stories". Until last Friday. He was at the copier and I was chopping paper for a project we did this week.He got really serious and started telling me about something that has been on his mind quite a bit lately. Suddenly, he jerked his head around and looked at me with these big eyes. He told me that only one other teacher on campus knew what he had just shared. He asked me to please not tell anyone else - it was a private matter. Of course I agreed. I was (and still am) shocked that he confided something in me. Since then, he seems to be more free to talk to me about all sorts of things. In fact, there have been a couple of times I have wondered it there was something he has wanted to tell me about himself but stops just as it is about to come spilling out.

I've asked myself why he would randomly share something he felt was very personal with me. It was definitely out of the ordinary. Part of me feels very privileged to have been confided in. But why me?