On my mind...

I'm absolutely exhausted from our graduation celebration last night. Not that the normal commute isn't bad enough, but the commute at 10pm is much worse. So, I'm not particularly inspired to write this morning, despite the fact that, after hearing the speakers last night, I'd like to be. In listening to the bios of each of the "Student Achievement" award winners, I was thinking about how much they do, despite all of the challenges in their lives, and how little I do, despite the relative ease in mine. I jokingly said to my boss that while their bios were filled with volunteer and internship work, 4.0 gpas, and extensive family responsibilities, mine would sound something like "Karen was a nice girl most of the time."

So, in my search for inspiration, I found this poem and thought it might be exactly what I needed to balance all that I heard last night. This is from The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Hope you like it.

What if it truly doesn't matter what you do
but how you do whatever you do?
How would this change what you choose to do with your life? ...
What if there is no need to change, no need to transform yourself
into someone who is more compassionate,
more present, more loving or wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to do better?...
What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be,
but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?
How would this change what you think you have to learn?

I know, i know. Sometimes I complain about them. Sometimes they drive me crazy. Sometimes I want to beat them repeatedly with something heavy/sharp/etc. And then I have moments like this morning.

This morning, just before 9am, a student came in to say thank you. Yes, that's ALL he came in for. Not "thank you now I need something else." Not "thank you but what you did wasn't quite good enough." No. He just came in to say thank you, I know you worked hard on this for me and I appreciate it.

Oddly enough, this is the second time in the past week that this has happened. Last Wednesday, another student came in to tell me that he didn't think he would've gotten his job interview without the work I did on his resume. I thought it was an oddity. Now I'm beginning to think that I've gotta get the parents of these kids together to thank them for teaching their kids manners.

It's funny, actually, that I'm being so very happy about people saying thanks, since I was reprimanding a friend last night for saying thank you too much. I was trying to explain that, when "thanks" gets said too much, it loses something. That it just becomes something you expect, instead of something that brightens your day.

So, maybe that's it. I should be happy that my students drive me crazy. That way, when they're sweet and kind and thoughtful, I appreciate it more.