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The first time I met Emma, we were in a high school cafeteria. It was my second year as an educational tech, and she had just joined our school district in the same role. Essentially, we served in support roles, helping teachers and students.
“This is Emma,” my friend Cheryl, also an edtech, said. “She’ll be working in one of the special education rooms.”
What I didn’t know at the time was that I had just met someone who would be so pivotal to my future. We were so different. Emma was 17 years younger than me. I was a 43-year-old mother of four who had been married for a long time. She was 25 and recently married. I was Gen X, and she was a millennial, closer in age to my eldest son than she was to me. I often made pop culture references that she was clueless about because the divide was so great.
“You could have been my babysitter,” Emma would joke. “You could have been her mother,” my aunt, who was a retired teacher, said when I told her about my new friend and coworker. There was no reason our friendship should have blossomed, but it did.
We became friends despite our differences
Each day, we navigated primary school together. We spent three years working at the neighborhood K-2 school. We were inseparable and often paired to deal with the most significant behavior issues. When we walked down the hall, people would comment about how opposite we were. Emma was 5’11” and I stood at just 5 feet. She watched Law & Order religiously and went to bed early. I stayed up late and watched anything scary. At times, Emma seemed more mature than I was.
At work, people were in awe of our easy and organic bond. We just fit. Our humor was similar too. Fits of hysterics often followed when we spent time together. Once we got going, it was hard to stop.
I watched Emma tackle pregnancy and motherhood. I saw her finish her degree and become a teacher. She helped me navigate issues in my marriage and was always there to listen. Her husband, who was a trained plumber, came to my house to do work. Emma offered support when I returned to school for my master’s in education. For two years, we worked together with ease and comfort. People envied our natural banter and how similar our stance was on working with some of the most challenging students.
I moved to another school, but we ended up working together again
After I finished my degree, I moved to another school district. We stayed in touch, meeting for dinners with our old team from that neighborhood school. Though we were not able to meet up as often as we wanted to, we always fell right back into our comfortable routine with endless banter. I watched Emma transform into an amazing mother and teacher. She got a job in another neighborhood school in the district. I marveled as she tackled another advanced degree to further her teaching career.
This past summer, a position opened up in the school where Emma was teaching. Excited at the possibility of working with one of the best work friends I’ve ever had, I applied. I was almost placed in another position in the district, and then, luckily, at the last minute, I got the job I wanted. The first time I went to the school, as I stood in Emma’s classroom, I sent her a text. It was an unbelievable moment that made me teary-eyed.
We work in classrooms across the hall from each other. The kids we teach watch us model teamwork and what that means. They understand that the two teachers they spend so much time with are also friends.
Emma has also become a mentor to me in many ways since she’s been at the school longer than I have. Her scheduling skills are superior to mine, and her natural abilities as a leader shine through as we manage our fantastic team of edtechs. She has taught me so much, not just this year, but since I’ve met her. I’d like to hope she has learned something from me as well.
Emma will finish her master’s in May, and I recently applied for my doctorate. We are proud of each other and thrilled that we finally get to teach together. Even with our age gap and generational differences, we have forged a lasting and solid friendship. I am grateful.
The post I didn’t expect to become such good friends with a coworker who is 17 years younger than I am. We’re different in many ways. appeared first on Business Insider.
