Rope bottoms · north of the river, London
One generous month a year and eleven mean ones
Pinned as a_teachers_year
- Wants
- somebody whose own year has a shape, or who can accept a thin autumn
- Rope so far
- Six years, two partnerships, both of which died in a November.
- Around
- north of the river, London
My year has one good month in it and eleven difficult ones. From September I am working most evenings until ten and I am no use to anybody by Saturday. Every partnership I have had in this was formed in a summer and buried in a November, and I have finally accepted that the pattern belongs to me rather than to bad luck.
Thirty six, north of the river, six years in and teaching for rather longer than that. I am putting the calendar first because it is the thing that actually decides whether this works, and because I have twice let somebody find it out gradually and watched them take it personally.
What I want is a rope partnership that survives a bad stretch without either of us treating the bad stretch as a verdict. In February that might mean half an hour on a Sunday and a phone call. In August it means whatever we like. If a rhythm that uneven sounds unbearable, you are being sensible and we should not start.
I would rather one person over years than four people over one good summer. I am not interested in collecting evenings. I want the sort of thing where somebody notices in week three that I have gone quiet and asks about it.
Not looking for anyone who will tell me I should simply make more time. Two people have said that to me and both of them worked office hours. Not looking for anything that has to be planned six weeks out. And not looking for someone who wants to meet the people I work with, ever.