Getting what I need to get what I want

I'm not one to back down from an issue if I feel it is unjust.  My Italian friend's parents told me this summer that as a person of Calabrese ancestry, I'm hard headed.  This is true. They knocked the table with their knuckles and nodded their heads in agreement.   As a matter of fact, I get even more diligent when I can't get what I need in order to do the job I want to do.  

A professor of mine once said that art students have to get what they need in order to get the results they want in the art classroom.  I think the same phrase applies to an art teacher in a school that has virtually no money to support their art programs.  I need supplies to get what I want.  What I want is to have my students excel in the art classroom.  What I want is to be able to do my job.  What I want is a copier that works.  What I want is to not have to pay for copier paper out of my own pocket.  

What's a carpenter without a hammer?  

What's a mechanic without a wrench?  

What's an art teacher with out paper? 

Drawing paper is the one thing I need the most.  I've already doled out the cash for lots of other supplies.    My principal, after my diligent and yet gentle approach to asking over and over again for paper, finally responded with a "it should be doable".   

I'm grateful for my paper.  It will get me through.  It will get my students through. They're grateful for what I give them and what I share with them and that's all that matters.