On Sweat and Sweating

Good Lord, Friday was hot.  I left the apartment at eight, and walked three blocks to catch my morning bus to get to class, and by the time I got to the corner, I had sweated through my khakis and my new, green t-shirt.  And I don't mean like a couple of pit stains and a little moisture around my butt; no, I mean a full-fledged deluge through every article of clothing that I had on, everything sticking to my body in that way that the bed sheets stick to you after a night with the flu, like all you're wearing is a warm and moist shower curtain.

There were a couple of other U of I students waiting on the street corner for the bus, and I tried my best to hide the fact that my shirt looked like Michael Phelps' shorts; what can I do about it? I'm a sweaty guy.  But that doesn't mean that I'm not self-conscious about it.  Robyn is always telling me not to worry about it, that all it means that it's hot outside, and probably everyone is sticky and sweating.  But, still, my sweat is something that concerns me, that I spend a little too much time worrying about it, and trying to hide it by layering unnecessarily, and crossing my arms in front of my chest when someone is talking to me in order to hide my pit stains.

At some of the schools that I have worked in, there is no air conditioning, or only air conditioning in a few of the classrooms.  So when school starts in September or in the end of August, the students are in class a time when it is still sweltering outside, and the school building quickly becomes a crucible filled with hot, fragrant, and easily irritated students and adults.  Of course, this means that, for the first couple of weeks of the school year, I've got to be constantly worrying about my sweat.  And students, even students with cognitive disabilities, are experts at figuring out whatever it is you're self-conscious about, and bringing it up over and over again.  Even when I think I'm doing a good job of not letting them know that it bothers me when they say, "Ew! Mr. Wright, you're sweating!", and even when I try to explain that everybody sweats, and that it's no big deal, and that we should all just try to focus and finish our math here, it still boggles my mind how they pinpoint that one thing, and keep bringing it up over and over again.

Of course, this whole situation could be avoided if we could just afford air conditioning in all classrooms.