Showing up late and missing out on the speeches and preliminaries: I totally identify with her ! She actually congratulated herself on missing part of the lecture. Fortunately, the parents were due soon, so he had to cut off his remarks. But then she doesn't know the names of her students, two months or more into the term? And doesn't care. This woman is clinically depressed. Or cynically something. You've put us in her POV with great skill and finesse, and this is a polished, professional piece. I kept hoping that she would come around to some kind of insight or revelation to brighten her mood. Maybe the release of emotion at the end is going to be cathartic? You've captured the immobilizing sense of grief or futility, the "why bother," why care, kind of feeling that so many of us know all too well. Excellent writing; sad subject!