Backlogged Part 5: No-Shave November

It's No-Shave November again! 

Other less manly males may do Movember, but unless you want to look like a cop or a math teacher you should grow a beard (Wait, I do teach one math class...NAH!). The more facial hair, the more men's health awareness it promotes!

Since I normally look like this...

I stopped shaving the last week of October and then trimmed down the middle with a #2. 

At the rate my facial hair sprouts I'll look like a caveman by December.

Oddly enough, my beard always attracts attention from my students. I answer questions all year long about "Why is your beard a different color than your hair/so red?" ("Because it is.") Some kids add beards to stick figure drawings of me and I've had random girls with fake mustaches drawn on their fingers run up to me in the halls. Some of it's a teen thing, I suppose. I normally offer to shave if "everyone gets a good grade" on a certain test or two once a year and that can create a furor. It's like the kids think my beard is a fixture when it's just a quick shave away. 

I find it amusing at least.

I never envisioned myself with facial hair as a kid. That was always something my uncles' had, but not my dad or anyone in my circle of friends.

I got lazy once in college and it stuck. 

It started as a "I don't feel like shaving" and turned into a "I wonder if I can..."

I've mostly worn it since. For one, it helps me to look my age. Otherwise, I can be mistaken for a middle/high-school student. All my past seventh graders have flooded me with "You look like one of us!" comments whenever I do a surprise shave or they all ace a test to fleece me. 

Once, a hall/parking-lot patrol tried to catch me being truant when I went out for lunch years and years ago. He screeched to halt in his golf cart, hiked up his belt, and sauntered over with a "Where do you think you're going?"

"To work."

Awkward! I cracked up on the inside. 

So, there you have it. I have a beard. It grows/has-grown on me and lets me give Shane wicked raspberries. 

At the end of the month, I'll throw up a Wooly-Mike photo for kicks. It should be pretty bushy unless Carrie decides to point out it's "No-Shave" November and not "No-Trim" November.