Some thoughts from my students

Kristen, “College scares the crap out of me. I’ve always been excited to live on my own, to take classes I am actually interested in, but sometime recently (approximately last Tuesday, 7:12 PM) I realized how different college is going to be. I’m worried about my family, not because I need them, but because they need me. I don’t know what they’re going to do next year without me as chauffeur/grocery shopper/laundress/therapist.
Happy: rain, classical music, quiet, baking French bread, coffee, reading, problem solving, making funny faces, golden retrievers, writing in cursive.
Grumpy: loud noises, rap music, shopping, people who are stupid/ignorant/loud/pretentious/share genetic material with me.”


Sylvia: “Supposedly I wanna do computer science. Or maybe that’s what my dad wants. I can’t even tell anymore. …I love web design. But apparently it’s not a “realistic” career. I’d love to be a teacher…only again, according to my dad it’s not “realistic.” God knows why THAT’S unrealistic…”

Stephanie…”I come from a political family. My grandfather was a sentatoresque person fro Taiwan for forty years. He was elected in Nationalist Mainland China right before the Republic of China fell to the Communists. He then fled on a plane to Taiwan. He’s met Chiang Kai-Shek many times. I think that is my main reason for interest in government.”

“I need to do a thousand things and more. I need quiet. I need rest. I need to turn in my order for my graduation robe. I NEED TIME.” Nora

Maria’s is funny but true:
“COLLEGE!!
Different friends?
Should I like boys now or wait till college?
Will I get into the colleges I want?
Parents are bitchy
 It’s my last year here they should cut me some slack.
What’s my brother gonna do when I’m gone?
Am I scared to go to college?
UW or somewhere else?
Am I gonna change when I go to college?
Am I with the right friends? Why am I doing stupid shit? Why do I still care about boys
I’m lazy for no reason
I’ve changed and I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

Farrah, #2 in her class
“I’m sick and tired of my friends who seem increasingly vindictive and fake. My parents are always on my case about everything even though we used to get along just fine last year. I’m tired of everyone expecting so much from me all the time. I want the freedom to be lazy and slack off but I’m scared of failing. I can’t wait to go to college, buit I’m so scared I won’t be able to go out of state because of finances and just not getting into a “good enough” school in my parents’ eyes…”


Erin told me about death and her experience with it this week. Maryam explained to me about all the death she’s dealt with this year and how she wants her ADD to go away. Nicole, whose parents split up two weeks ago, is concerned about how her little sisters are handling it and about her grandfather who has parkinson’s and could go any day now.

Many of them speak of loss of jobs. Brandon, in particular, who has been really dropping in this class…wrote two whole pages!!! About how he lost his job as a martial arts instructor and how eaten up he is all day thinking about the poor kids he used to teach who now have an instructor who is just in it for the money.

Melissa told me about the struggles she’s been having with self-worth and her relationship with her father, how she’s going to counseling because she’s split between two sides of herself. Melissa is seen by her classmates as being dumb. She ended this way and it seriously made me cry, “I’m happy when I get recognition and affirmation, when I feel like I’m loved and when I accomplish something important to me. I’m unhappy when I feel used, ignored, unappreciated, when I don’t improve or when I fail, and when one of my two sides is unhappy it is almost impossible for both of my sides to win.” That is a very eloquent and intelligent girl, if you ask me.

But probably my favorite was this:

John:
Happy
Flowers
Wetlands
Sunny days
Unicorns
Classical music
Ie Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto
Grits

Grumpy
Rain
Cold
Homework
Broken xbox
Pop music
Grape juice

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