I can't believe what the last year has brought.
1. I teach high school now. Are you serious? Who put me in charge of 13 year olds?
2. I'm applying to grad school. . . ?really? even though I failed the GRE.
Anyway, I'm back into the blogging mode because of a few reasons, but primarily because Angela and I have recently been inspired to quit our jobs and make videos for youtube. Don't know how successful that will be.
A recent visit from a friend really put my life into perspective. My friend Amir came to my 9th grade class and talked about the death of his twin brother, who died from complications of a gunshot wound in 2006. I never saw my kids so engaged. They listened to him far more in 30 minutes than they have listened to me in the entire year.
Why does it take such a traumatic or terribly relatable event for them to be engaged? Doesn't that say something about our education system, or, our society as a whole? Amir's speech really made me remember what I was doing in my life--that was appreciating every day. Somewhere along the past few years I quickly forgot that, but I'm glad that Amir brought it back to light.
Have you ever been walking on the street and a stranger smiles at you? I'm not talking the creepy old-man stare, but the warm, friendly, smile that you get from someone who just wanted to show you a happy face?
Do that. It really feels nice. When did we become this place where it's frowned upon to smile in public?
No comments:
Post a Comment