Blogging for the Blogless - Volume 3

Looking back, they were all just kids anyway. Looking back, they were names on a paper and then faces in the desks, staring at me while I put on my tough show and protected what I knowingly claimed falsely as my own.

Looking back, they were wide-eyed and afraid and most likely more than a little bit confused…by me, this speech I was giving…by each other, a motley crew sentenced to eighteen weeks in close proximity…by themselves, sticky – trapped somewhere between fifteen and eighteen – adults, only in the legal, hopeful sense.

Looking back, they were more than willing to try this craft – this writing, without the rules and formalities of comma splices and forbidden fragments. Looking back, teaching writing is a metaphor for teaching self, life, reflection. When this room is dark and this desk is empty and the magic is gone, I will look back – was I at all qualified or prepared to mold this metaphor? Until then, I will stare at them wide-eyed and notice their wonder, their genius, their spirits…and then I will close my eyes and pray for the words that turn this classroom into something more…

Looking back, they grew into their names and out of their labels. They began to fit their souls and get comfortable…some of them discovered they had painted themselves too small…others decided there was no need for the show; they were enough on their own. In writing, there is no such thing as a name without a life…and so it is in our classroom…and so it is in our school…and so it is…

Looking back, I wouldn’t trade this room for the world. There are spirits here and life. There are dreams to be caught. There are wounds to be mended. There are people, characters who never had life before a brilliant mind brought them out where we could see them, and know them, and love them…and they danced in this room.

Looking back, they were all just seekers anyway – and dreamers – and teachers -- and on their way to becoming. Looking back, I was lucky to have shared their path for a time…and lucky to have seen them…truly… looking back, in years to come, I will wonder what dreams came true – and which ones didn’t…but more importantly, I will wonder what they became and what they are still becoming…which has little to do with what life handed them – and everything to do with what they bothered to see and then create.

Yours,
Girl Friday