I’ve just realised I’m fucking terrified. This has been brought on by the fact that I have to do my first solo teaching tomorrow. They’re only 12 year olds but they can bit pretty scary. I think mostly I’m scared in case I’m no good at it. It’s a long time since I properly used my French and I’m scared of making mistakes. I’m not used to not being good at stuff; when I was at school I was pretty much good at everything. I got less good at stuff as I progressed in my education but no-one read my university essays except me and my tutor so it didn’t really matter that much. If I fuck this up there will be an actual teacher and 30 kids there to witness my failure.

On top of this I’ve got so much work to do for my course and I don’t really know where to start. Well, that’s not quite true; I’m going to start with a list just as soon as I’ve finished writing this. And I bought some new stationery today, surely that will help?

Mostly, I’m just fucking terrified that I’ve made a huge mistake in embarking on this teaching lark in the first place. I’ve never made a serious career decision before. I’ve pretty much just drifted along into whatever seemed the easiest at the time. And now I’ve given up a (admittedly boring, and not very well paid) job, my Dad has invested a chunk of his savings in my life (well, he’s been doing that my whole life), and I’m scared that I’ve committed to do something for the rest of my life that I’m not even sure I want to do for the next six weeks.

I’m fairly sure this is just pre-show nerves as it were and once I actually start doing it I’ll be OK. This isn’t really like me. I usually give the impression of being sure of myself and in control but just now I don’t feel like that at all. One of the reasons I left my old job in the holiday industry three years ago was because I often felt an underlying sense of impending doom. And now that feeling is back and I don’t like it one tiny bit.

I’ve been so busy lately, and been having so much fun enjoying comedy adventures that I think I’d just pushed all this stuff down in the hope it would go away. And now there’s no comedy to distract me it’s coming bubbling back to the surface like those hot mud pool things that sort of burp and splutter their sulphurous gases out into the open.