Monday, November 5, 2012

Year 2, Day 55: 11/5/12 - "Foolish Games"

"And I watched from my window
Always felt I was outside
Looking in on you.
Well excuse me, guess I've mistaken you for somebody else
Somebody who gave a damn
Somebody more like myself..."

-"Foolish Games" by Jewel

Letting Go: It's so easy to hang on to something because it gives you comfort or hope.  But there has to be a time when you let those false things go, especially when you realize that they are based on a false idea.  I knew that there was a never a chance for us - knew that we would never be together, but I always had hope.  Thank you for taking that from me, today.  I am a bit thick-skulled at times and I didn't want to see the message, but it was loud and clear.  I'm so glad I never told you how I felt - because now I don't ever have to and I can at least still have the one thing that is true, and that is our friendship.

Why I Teach, and Why I Will Continue to Teach:  I got the following message from one of my student's who took my class back when I was at NCSU:
hey kawanna,
I am in vet school now and we are doing application based learning exercises right now which requires lots of library research. I just wanted to let you know I appreciate the leg up your class gave me in my research and citation skills. I am using refworks account I made for the class :)
Now, if that isn't a reason to be happy to be a teacher, I don't know what else is!  It helps that this was a bright student (though, I think all of my students were bright!).  I know she'll be a great vet and I can't wait to see what else she does in life!

The Future of America?  I've often expressed my concern about the ability of the generation that is coming up now to actually keep our society going in any positive direction.  Today I had those concerns (fears?) affirmed (or reaffirmed?).  I was on the 2nd lap of my morning run around the park that is near my house, and what do I smell?  Smoke.  But not just any smoke - marijuana smoke (no, you don't have to smoke it to know what it smells like).  There was a group of kids standing next to one of the park benches and I saw one of them spew the smoke out and then place his hand behind him as I approached.  Did he really think that I couldn't smell the smoke?  Does he really think that people are that stupid that they don't know what he and his friends were doing?  My response, I asked them to at least take it away from the track.  I can't make them make better choices about their lives (not smoking marijuana before getting on the school bus or driving off in your car would be a better choice), but at least I can let them know that the rest of us aren't oblivious to what they are doing.  We aren't stupid either.  I'd also appreciate not having my air contaminated any more than it already is - I want to run and get an endorphin high, not a drug high!

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