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I love the unexpected

I had kind of a delightful thing happen this week. One of my students sent me an email out of the blue and before I tell you what was contained in that email, I will give you a bit of a back story on this particular boy. I met him when he was in the 6th grade about 6 years ago. He was for lack of a better term: a problem child. He is and was a very bright kid but had a lot of anger issues and didn't apply himself in the least. He would walk into my classroom some days and just throw his book bag across the room as far as he could. My staff wanted him kicked out my program because no one could handle him - he would get sent to my office for behavior problems at least 2x a week if not more but I loved this kid. I knew he had potential and a wisdom beyond his years and at the risk of sounding too "Dangerous minds," he just needed someone to root for him. Well, guess who that turned out to be? We formed a solid bond and he stayed put in our program for the next 3 years. When he graduated middle school, I hoped we would still keep in touch but years of teaching taught me that most kids you bond with are only in your life for a short time but sometimes Facebook does have its uses. He and I are "friends" on Facebook and every once in a while he will shoot me a quick message but the other day the email he sent made my day if not my week or even year. He wrote, "hey jen , long, long, long, long time no talk , how have you been ? all those time i use to draw on table back in middle school is working for me now (: im a graphic designer , had a job last year in Mass Ave , this year i have won about 2 competitions for the government stop smoking competition and a stop drinking 0 percent alcohol , i have plenty of designs i do anything you could think off i also have many design for a clothing line i might start in like 2 year with the connection i might find in college (: everything is beautiful !" I can't say that I was shocked to hear this about him but I can't tell you how many heartbreaking stories I hear about some of the kids I thought would be really successful so to get this email kind of blows me away. To say that I am proud of him is an understatement and I'm so happy for him that I feel like it happened to me. I would like to think I had at least a little influence on him and maybe a lot but even if I didn't, it serves as justification for why I used to drag myself to his school every day despite all the horrific things that went on on a daily basis. Even for just one of my students to have a bright future means that the blood, sweat and tears were worth every excruciating drop. On to the books...well even before I get to the books, I have another cute story. I was sitting at the bus stop the other morning reading my book waiting to go to work and the street worker who was cleaning up saw me reading and said, "look at that, an old fashioned book. No kindle, no ipad?" and I replied that I never will be caught dead with an electronic device when there are still books with real pages in the world and he smiled a big smile and said, "That's my girl!" I love that other people have the same appreciation for real books that I do - seriously if you ever catch me with one of those stupid electronic nonsense things, just end it for me. Please. NOW onto the books...I am on the 5th installment of the "song of ice and fire" series and my mind is kind of exploding. So much has happened and I'm reading through them so quickly that I haven't had time to stop and really digest everything. I also have no clue which direction the author is heading at any given moment. He has done so many unexpected things and killed off SO many characters that anything is possible. I still love Jon Snow and yes I have a little crush on him if its even possible to have a crush on a fictional character. He is growing and becoming more complex as the story progresses and I like that. I also have a new found respect for Jaime Lannister and I can't believe that someone I despised in the first book has become someone I admire in the fifth. Again, that is why I'm liking these books so much - so many twists and turns and unexpected, yet believable character development. I'm not sure what I will do with myself when this book ends because it has taken up so much of my time and I know I will have to wait an inordinate amount of time for the 6th book to come out. Thank goodness summer is coming and I can be outside beating my husband at tennis. Happy reading everyone!

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