First, a clarification about that last entry, which I thought was so courageously hopeful and elegantly presented (and which apparently almost no one read): it had nothing whatever to do with me or with anyone I know. A couple of people have contacted me on the basis of the misunderstanding that it was mine, or my daughter's. It was this year's graduation speech by a senior at my alma mater, where I know no one in the senior class, or any other class, for that matter. I posted it because I was so proud that my school has continued to produce young people with such generous spirits, so willing to greet the world and extend themselves to discover and participate in it.
I know that, while the international aura of the school is unusual in this country, the spirit it creates is not. My children are graduates of three different high schools (including that one) and the result has been much the same. I suppose I was struck by the young lady's approach and experiences in large part because the school in which I teach is so very different. A religious school in which all the students and all but about six of the faculty are of the same religion and culture, it seeks to provide the students with a thorough grounding in the beliefs, texts, and lifestyle of their community of origin. The school does an impressive job of producing articulate young people passionately committed to the tenets, vision, and politics of their faith -- but it's an approach completely distinct from the one in which my own high school is engaged.
Both methods have their plusses and minuses, of course. But the combination of reading that speech, reading some entries from The Blue Voice, and finding myself involved in a debate on a messgae board yesterday, all got me wondering: Could I be a different me than I am? Would it be possible for me to be someone else, to believe differently, to hope for different things than I do?
Too much for one entry, so. . . more later.
5 comments:
i didn't see the entry yesterday. you should be proud of your alma mater for turning out kids like this.
I just finished yesterday's entry and now this. You definitely know how to ask some interesting questions.
Well...I read yesterday's entry; and now I feel like a dope thinking it was your daughter. I guess the young lady's speech sounded a little TOO MUCh like something you might come up with, for it to be your daughter! LOL!
Once again, I have to say I envy you your education. I would have resented it every bit as much as you seemed to at the time (or more!), but how much richer you are for it! And I stand by my comment that you have done a good job as a mother, at least as far as your children's education is concerned. Lisa :-] http://journals.aol.com/mlraminiak/ComingtoTermswithMiddleAge
ahhhhhh. I am a different person than I was three years ago. I am finally living the life I never lived out of fear and exhaustion. You can be anything you want to be and I have so much faith in you. judi
I think it's VERY possible for most of us. We are so much more nurture than nature. And sometimes a particular fork in the road can make all the difference.
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