And it stoned me...

..To my soul.

Everyday I walk into my classroom hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. A product of living in "Hurricane Culture" I suppose. Most days fall squarely in the middle, a little good, a little bad.

Today, I am seeing the worst, but am experiencing the best.

In American History we have studying the 1920's and 2 days ago started talking about the Harlem Renaissance. I briefly mentioned a few people who were part of the movement and what they did (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes) then showed a ten minute video on Zora Neale Hurston, and asked the students what they saw in the video that they thought was relative to their lives. The answers, most of them, centered around Zora (as they have taken to calling her, as if she were a dear friend) never giving up though faced with much adversity. I topic I talk about often in this blog.

So, i asked them to do a little writing. To answer the question: who are you? (oo oo, oo oo).

They worked on it for a while in class, asked me a few questions about what format to use and what exactly I wanted them to write. I replied: Whatever answers the question who you are, and in what ever format you think you can answer it best. After all, they are the experts on the subject.

Today they came in and I gave them the oppurtunity to share who they are. I told them it wasn't mandatory, that some probably wrote some personal stuff that they may not want others to know.

One by one volunteers walked to the front of the class, and shared. They shared stories of hardship and tribulation. Broken homes, broken bones, broken hearts. Lives of violence, poverty, drugs, alcohol, abandonment. Lives of seeing fathers kill and be incarcerated, lives of cracked out mothers, lives of lonely, scary nights hiding under the bed or crying themselves to sleep.

and more...

...lives of falling in with the wrong crowd, doing the wrong thing, being there at the wrong time...

and more...

...lives of walking away from the wrong crowd, doing the right thing, and making it the right time.

Lives of not giving up, looking on the bright side, finding a reason to carry on. Lives of hope, love, and redemption.

Lives of Redemption.

Lives of Redemption.

One by one i listened to their stories, I found out who they are. More importantly, I think they found out who they are. They found out that they are not the only one. Others have been through the same thing and have survived it and grown stronger from it. They showed how strong they are just by getting up to share, they gave strength to others, that they too can over come. They have shown me that I too can overcome the obstacles before me.

I came in today hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst. My heart has been broken today, and has been fully restored. The healed wound is often strongen than it was before. I saw the worst today, but am experiencing the best.