'Teacher Man' by Frank McCourt

I love this exerpt from "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt (also wrote 'Angela's Ashes' and 'Tis'):
Find what you love and do it. That's what it boils down to. I admit I didn't always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You're on your own in the classroom, one man or woman facing five classes everyday, five classes of teenagers. One unit of energy against one hundred seventy-five units of energy, one hundred seventy-five ticking time bombs, and you have to find a way of saving your own life. They may like you, they may even love you, but they are young and it is the business of the young to push the old off the earth. You have to learn the tricks. It's hard, but you have to make yourself comfortable in the classroom. You have to be selfish.
The classroom is a place of high drama.You'll never know what you've done to, or for, the hundreds coming and going. You see them leave the classroom: dreamy, flat, sneering, admiring, smiling, puzled. After a few years you develop antennae. You can tell when you've reached them or alienated them. It's chemistry. It's psychology. It's animal instinct. You are with the kids, and as long as you want to be the teacher, there's no escape. Don't expect help from the people who have left the classroom, the higher-ups. They're busy going to lunch and thinking higher thoughts. It's you and the kids. Find what you love and do it.

And now I'm reading 'About A Boy' by Nick Hornby! I love vacay...