Desensitized?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting desensitized, but in a good way. When I first came to The Alternative School, I was terrified of confronting the students. I did it, but I was so scared. I would have to go have the shakes in private afterwards. This was not made any easier by the fact that some of our students are perfectly capable of lying to your face about what they just did, even if you were looking right at them while they did it.

Today, I had to take points from a (middle school) student who wouldn't give me his point sheet. He refused, so I took him to the assistant principal, where he finally gave me his sheet. He then called me a nasty racial insult before returning to class (but out of earshot of the assistant principal, of course).

And I was okay. Not happy about being called a nasty name, but I was okay. I didn't shake, I didn't panic, I just reported it to the assistant principal and wrote up the referral.

I guess desensitization can be a good thing, sometimes. And sometimes doing the thing you're scared of really does make it better, less stressful.