Saturday, August 02, 2008

Just breezin' on by


No one ever wants to be accused of being a Donny Osmond fan. But there IS one song that I keep running over and over lately, that being his remake of George Benson's Breezin', which is one of those instrumentals you're not supposed to ever, EVER cover, let alone add lyrics (I still can't get over learning that Take Five has lyrics).

Anyways, that's just how I've been rolling lately. One day (well, last Sunday for me) you think you're just the unluckiest guy in the world. The next day...no problem. It's all good.

You wanna know why? 'Cause this is the life I chose. I knew this was a life that entailed very little in the way of riches. Not at 26, anyways. Consequently, you have to give up all the things that true financial security grants you, like the freedom to live in a larger home or the permission from a father to marry his little girl, because he's confident of the purchasing power behind your checking account.

It's not entirely about money, either. Doctors get clear cut results (namely the patient gets better or, uh, dies). Carpenters know when the house is built. Even burger flippers get to count how many patties they've cooked up.

For teachers, it's not impossible to determine all the good they've done, but one would have to work overtime and then some to do the numbers. Did my student get it? Does she understand what's going on? Did I crack all the cognitive and affective barriers, not to mention cultural walls, to get that light bulb to turn on?

Yeah, some days, I don't know.

That's fine. I'm cool with that. Part of it is I have to have faith that I did something good today, and I will be rewarded for it, not with a fancy sports car or a flat screen TV, but with the right to eat an adequate meal at least three times a day, with a roof over my head.

But also, this was exactly why I took AP Psych back in high school. I wanted to know all the things people do to get the things they wanted or express the ideas they had. Why do people kiss up and kick down? Why are people intolerably mean to some and unconditionally forgiving to others? Why do people preach standards and break their own rules when it suits them? Why do people want others to communicate without words whatever ideas could easily be expressed in a sentence or two ("I love you" comes to mind)? I wanted to know. (I told you Romo Lampkin was one of my inspirations)

I didn't have the patience to sit through neuroscience to major in psychology, and political science bored me to death. So I became a teacher.

I get to observe and influence, and in return someone else gets to learn something, if they're motivated enough to reach beyond that which they deem comfortable. I get to apply that to my own life, and see what happens. I get to see a little bit of myself in each student in each class, and I am free to be delighted or horrified, and change myself accordingly. I get to be me.

I couldn't do that while flipping burgers.

I love my job.

Anyways...I have a week's vacation coming up. If I'm really productive during that week, I'll work on setting up another blog, this one to cover the WCQs in the CONCACAF region (for the moment, I'm thinking the content will be more like Drudge, as in a huge link repository, but with the opening to add more original content as we go along and interest picks up).

No, do not ask me how I can watch US WCQs all the way out here.

Labels: