I've been lurking around here for quite a while now, waiting for my BSG muse to kick in, and finally, through Jeb's challenge, it finally has. Thanks, Jeb! So here goes.

Still a Teacher By Lt. Mady "Amazon" Bay June 17, 2004

I never wanted this job.

Okay, maybe in kindergarten, when all the kids wanted to be President someday, my name may have been on the list, but today, three days after the Cylons destroyed our world...

A few people, the ones that actually knew who I was four days ago, or are in such a position that they found out pretty quickly, keep reminding me of what job I really did want. A teacher.

I was a teacher for many years, at first starting in those kindergarten classes, asking those children what they'd wanted to be when they grew up... Later I moved on to the higher grades, watching those innocent young children fight their own bodies as well as peer

pressure to fit in with other kids, as I fought to instill a sense of self worth and a love of learning.

After a while, I realized that there was so much more that I could do, as an administrator. I could change curriculums, to make them fit the day's standards; I could weed out the bad teachers, replace them with the ones that truly loved their craft; I could organize

the community to include the school system in its plans, in its life.

That's what I had been doing, moving up in the ranks, to a national, even planetary level. Four days ago. Three days ago.

Now, today, with a few days under my belt to grasp what has happened, for things to have calmed down, if only minutely, I realize that I can still do the job I love.

We have a lot to learn. About survival, about war and about compassion.

I may be the President, but I am still a teacher. I'm just in a different kind of classroom now...