Week 6: Have You Ever?

-Have you ever seen a group of 14- 15 year old's sit around a table and talk literature like college professors, spouting out lines of text from memory, while probing with follow up questions such as, "How do the Marigolds in "Marigolds," compare to the road Isis longed to explore in "Drenched in Light?"

- Have you ever heard students who rarely speak in class provide insight so rich you wish you could bottle it up and send it to people around the world for when the world has kicked them in the face and they need a pick me up?

- Have you ever wondered why you are doing a thing and if it matters at all, only to see weeks later that it did matter? It mattered a great deal.

- Have you ever been so proud, you think your heart might burst into a gajillion pieces right there in the floor?

- Have you ever felt the turning point between liking a thing, and then an epiphany "No, I don't just like this thing. I positively love it with every ounce of my being"?

- Have you ever thought that you must be the luckiest person in the world to be able to get up each morning with good health and the opportunity to get to do what you love most in this world?

- Have you ever been nervous, really nervous, to let your voice be heard, but you do it anyway because even though it is painfully uncomfortable, you know you are better for it and others are too?

- Have you ever stopped talking long enough to listen..truly listen...to another person. In doing so, did you discover that your need to be speak should never trump someone else's need to be heard?

- Have you ever surveyed the countenance of a student who has been validated by his peers? It is a look you will never forget, a humble smile, a slight blush, a reminder that he is in the room, people have noticed him, and he matters. Heck, his name is in writing. How can he can return to merely blending in with the desk after something like that?

I can't answer these questions for you, but I can tell you for me, the answer is yes, a resounding yes, that was made possible by each of you.

Thank you for making me proud over and over again. I don't know how in the world you guys will top yourselves next week, but somehow I know you will. You always do.

Humbled Daily,

Mrs. Bell

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