Last night, I was finally able to see the movie Enchanted. I secretly wanted to see it in theaters, but my 20-something peers had no desire to spend their hard earned dollars on Disney flicks. That is why I love working with youth. At the girls retreat last night, we piled into the youth room and watched Amy Adams sing her heart out on the projectors. Only Adams wasn't the only one singing. The girls could not sit still. By the time the song "How does He know that You love Him" came on, the girls were actually up dancing and skipping around the room. They had blankets and pillows waving everywhere as a line of girls followed the "leader" around in circles imitating the random people following Adam's character around in the movie. It made me smile.
I had a really long week at work. I was almost in tears with stress and frustration. (See the last post for just a tiny bit of the drama). I can't tell you what a blessing it was to leave my students and spend time with youth. The difference - the youth aren't afraid to still be kids. The girls skipping around singing were the exact same age as some of most my students - yet my students conversations tend to be about clubbing, drinking and drugs or worries about pregnancy, tickets, or problems with parents. As the youth sang and danced, I tried to imagine how my little gangsters would act if they were in the room.
It's actually really sad. Sometimes I wish I could pull my students aside from their conversations and tell them its okay to be young. What happened to good old fashioned fun? I remember some birthday parties in early high school that consisted of singing songs from Grease at the top of our lungs. This week, I walked by during a conversation of a group of girls were each was defending themselves, saying of course they were not still a virgin. Just the thought was insulting to them. I also listened to a student struggling with problems with CPS, and still another who is worried she will be serving jail time starting Monday. All of these girls were between 14-15.No, my peers were not perfect in high school, but our biggest worry was getting caught by parents. I don't ever remember anything more severe than that.
Friday afternoon, as I was walking around my classroom, something caught my eye. I was suprised to see a Hannah Montana keychain on my student's purse (let's call her Maria). I pointed to it and she smiled. "I'm a big fan" she blushed with embarrassment. I just smiled at Maria and told her that I think "Hannah" was very talented and love her songs. Maria gave me hope. My students may seem wild and stubborn sometimes, but they have been through so much and were forced to grow up too fast. Deep down, Maria and the other girls really still are kids. They long for those moments. And I long to see them in those moments.
(p.s. - As I wrote this BLOG I was watching my TIVO'd TXA 21 news from last night. Just as a finished, the part I was looking for aired. Some of our students were able to take a field trip to the station Friday. They were so excited when they got back. Friday night, their picture was shown on the news as the anchor talked about how great they were. Seeing their smiles in the picture on my TV just now was the best ending for this blog...it made me smile. What a great example of my high schoolers just being high schoolers)
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