get your cupcakes - get your cupcakes here

How often do you look at someone doing a different job and think, 'I could do that. I'd be good at that. Why am I wasting my life away teaching when I could be a train driver... a traffic warden... a park keeper... yes, I have had occasion to envy each of these professions - don't judge me - and today I am a cupcake seller. I love it.

It's not my first time. I've helped a friend on and off with his american cookies and cupcakes business. When he's overstretched and can't be in three places at once I help him out. I also spent a glorious part of my life working night shift in a Tim Hortons coffee shop. That was the best time of my life - no question.

Don't get me wrong, I love teaching; but sometimes it's easy to get a little jaded. Sometimes the pressures involved take a little shine off it. Sometimes it's easy to feel underappreciated and unloved. Selling baked goods just makes me happy. People like you when you sell them cupcakes. They smile when they see you; they are genuinely happy you exist in their lives. I'm not sure that can be said of all my pupils as a teacher. I love the cut and thrust - the banter - the twinkle in the eye - a bit of charm - a bit of a flirt (I can't be doing that as a teacher either) - give the customer a smile and an extra cookie thrown in, since they've been so nice.

I should probably come clean at this point and admit that, personally, I don't even like cupcakes. They are generally a sickly waste of the planets resources. They have no reason to exist (Though it has to be said that my friend, Nathan's, cupcakes are a pretty special waste of Earth's resources - truly the lightest, fluffiest, smoothest tasting waste available.) But do you have to like something to sell it? I certainly don't have to like silly iced pieces of fluff (sorry Nathan, delicious silly iced pieces of fluff) to have a great time selling cupcakes. I'd hate to think how miserable it would be to teach a subject I didn't love myself. There are teachers out there - teaching subjects they have no love for. I am so incredibly lucky to love what I teach.

Could I really leave education to sell cupcakes or donuts full time? No, of course not. I would soon get bored. I'd miss the dramas and challenges of the classroom too much. But for today I am not a teacher - I am a purveyor of cupcakes. So if you happen to be in Coleraine and feel the urge for a little drop of sugary happiness, come and say hello.