Sunday, February 3, 2013

make sure

Sunday night here. 11:08 pm. I am nearly blind and my mind is mush. I feel sorry for you, but more importantly I feel sorry for myself. I have been marking papers and writing report card comments for hours, days: all weekend. I am still nowhere close to being done. I am buried under an avalanche of school.

Stop it. Stop smiling. I see you. Shaking your head with glee. "Now he knows how we feel." Yes, I do know how you feel. I have been in your shoes remember, I knew how it felt then, and I know how it feels now! I do know that sometimes the hoops of school become so overbearing and evasive that jumping through them becomes what we do. We call it learning and slough our way through. One assignment, one assessment, one report card, one year at a time.

Sometimes, it is a good idea to just stop and breathe and remember why we are all here. This is not some chore that we are all meant to do for some future reward. This your education! And part mine too I suppose. You see it never ends. I know you are counting down till graduation day, I did too, but here I am again under the weight of school.

You want to know the secret to freeing ourselves? Love of learning. Reminding ourselves that we are all here-- alone and together to feed our minds and souls with knowledge and connections and skills and art and everything else that bring us joy. So your tests and exams and projects and assignments and my report card comments will one day end, and we will be left with something bigger. Better. We will be left with an alert and educated mind ready to take on the world. Or better yet at least one that might be able to understand itself.

Here is another way of saying it:


"If you're breathing you are living
If you're living you are learning
So write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Just make sure your life's exciting
Just make sure your life's exciting....

Talk to me. Commiserate with me.  What do you think? See you in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, this too shall pass, my friend. Thanks for the music and the words.

    ReplyDelete