My Circle Just Got Smaller
Been to the Zoo
Warning: Zoo photos incoming.
Thank You
www.deviantart.com/ashascadenc…
Ashascadence created these drawings of my OC Velocity. I want everyone to take a look at her gallery. Amazing artist.
The world feels like it is going to shit, but we have to lift each other up. We have to become the bright spots that make people smile.
My summer has been shit. In May my husband was in a wreck. He was fine, but the car was totaled. Then 3 weeks later he came down with Covid-19. I did too. We are fine, but his dad wasn't. My FIL spend over 2vweeks in the hospital, 10 days on a ventilator. He is finally home, but we wait to see how it has really affected him.
I don't want sympathy. I just want to point out that we all have our battles, and something as awesome as a picture of your OC can lift you up. It did me. Just as I was thinking of putting away my notes again and ignore writing, someone lifts me up and inspires me to continue.
This is how we change the world and keep it from turing to shit. Small kindnesses. Simple things to let others know we appreciate them.
Thank you Ashascadence.
Not What We Planned
I am glad I still have my students. With everything closed down and shelter-in- place has left me stir crazy. I see no one but my household and my students. Pity my students, I harass them all day.
But ultimately, we are trying to keep life normal for them. I think that normalcy is important for everyone right now. Keeping this regular, scheduled, and familiar helps ease the anxiety about the world.
On the flip side, do you know how much I could do with a few weeks at home?
I have officially reached the decade mark trying to teach the misfits that life's tides and eddies bring to me. In those ten years, I have learned a lot about people and compassion. My students, most of whom are throw-aways and societal rejects, have showed more insightfulness than a roomful of educated adults. All of my kids suffer severe trauma and mental illnesses, but their hearts, though scarred, understand more about the human condition and they have pushed me closer to the spiritual nature of life than I ever thought possible.
Through the good and the bad, these children, many of whom no one wants, have made me laugh and cry. They have crushed my heart and lifted up my soul. I have had students die or commit suicide, in class one day and gone the next. I have had students give up on themselves, and disappear in the jails and criminal justice system. I have had students turn things around for themselves and try to accept their past and work for a new future. I've had students fight me and then curl in my arms wanting a hug.
As I celebrate my ten years, to the day, I look forward to another ten years of teaching, caring for, and inspiring my miscreants. Another ten years of questioning my skills and finding the resolve to be the best I can be. Another ten years of learning to be better for those who need someone to be better for them.
I am not a champion, I am not a warrior. I do not stand in front of politicians or churches and make demands on behalf of my students. I don't do what I do for the glory or rewards. Lord, knows I don't do it for the pay. Why do I try to teach kids who bite, punch, yell, throw things, fight, manipulate, steal, and occasionally stab someone or themselves? Ten years of struggle and stress became all worth it when one eighteen year old threw his arms around my neck and said, "I love you. Why couldn't you have been my mom?"
A new year and a new decade. I refuse to make any resolutions, just small changes to be a better human and not worry about the rewards.
My response to that student? I told him I loved him too, and if he had been my child I would have drowned him at birth. He laughed and proceeded to sculpt a penis on the snowman the built.