Still Learning

A lot of time has gone by since I have posted last, and a lot has happened. Let me catch you up where I am now. I had my last week at North Kingston High School which was nothing short of phenomenal. I finished my last day of lessons with a student led Socratic Seminar. The results were pretty incredible to see in action and I left the high school flying high and feeling like a superstar.

The higher you fly, the harder it is coming back down.

 Going into the middle school was something of quite a culture shock. My first day there the seventh graders were working on finishing final drafts of their poems that they had been working on all week. As I went around the room reading their work, I experienced the one of the first, of multiple life changing experiences. Their work showed images of death, abuse, and broken hearts. Inside I was struggling with who I was in the seventh grade. I was struggling with the contrasting ideals of my sheltered life, having grown up in suburban Bristol, Rhode Island. The drive home that day was me bent over my steering wheel and crying the entire 40 minute ride home. I had to come to terms with something that day, and every day thereafter. No matter how badly I was feeling for what these children have gone through, and have been forced to struggle with, I was not doing them any good by feeling bad for them. If anything, I was only making matters worse. I was just another person spending wasted energy on feeling bad for them, instead of seeing the wealth of knowledge they are capable of learning during our short time together in the next 5 weeks, and the wealth of knowledge they would in turn teach me.

Sitting here, in this moment, having just come from a walk on the beach with my dog, Marley, and am now typing away on my laptop in a cozy little café downtown, I am thankful. I am thankful for being so lucky to have been born with such privileges. And thankful for the opportunity to learn from others, when I have been so focused on what I could teach and forgetting one of my most basic beliefs. That learning is a two way street, and I’m still learning as I go.