Previous Current Older Next Contact

2006-07-12 11:19 p.m.

treasure these moments

Over the last week or two I'd begun to think that I was ready to get the hell out of here.

But tonight I had my last English conversation class with my kids. There will be a little going-away party for me next week, but this was the last actual class. I had decided to bring Twister for us to play, which was a good choice. We had a lot of fun.

I'm going to miss those kids so much. They've improved so much. I'm so proud of them. Even the kid I complained about earlier has improved immensely in all areas, and I'm happy to have him coming now. I'd so love to continue to witness and help guide their progress. They could get so amazingly good if they kept it up�

And I really love those kids just for the people that they are. I'm closest, of course, to the kids who have been coming the longest, RahRah, Nokia, and Dragon, especially to RahRah, who was responsible for chasing all the adults away in the first place. Oh, I'm going to miss them. They're the main reason I'd want to stay another year� [sniffle sniffle] I fear I will be quite verklempt at several points next week.

I have a lot of other things to write about, like my climbing Mt. Fuji the weekend before last, but it'll have to wait. I am a busy bee right now.

In passing, though, I just read a really interesting article about creativity. A while back I mentioned how it seems that all the greatest works of art and the greatest scientific discoveries are made by the young, but it seems that's not always the case, and that the creative tend to fall into two classes of early bloomers and late bloomers. I wonder which I am? I'd tend to think I'm the latter, actually (if I'm either of them)�

(Did you know that Eliot wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" at age 23? And Welles directed Citizen Kane at 26? That blows my mind, man.)

And, hey, I've got to say, the more I learn about Al Gore, the more I am in love with the man. Sarah Vowell also wrote a great piece about him called "The Nerd Voice" in her book The Partly Cloudy Patriot. You should read it. Al Gore is my hero. How different would things be now if he was president? Oh, it's painful to think about. What if he did run again? What if he WON? We'd see some changes around this popsicle stand, that's for sure. That would be so cool. I'm going start asking the kami for that when I pray at Shinto shrines. Do Japanese deities have influence over American politics? Hmmm�

�What we need is a president who is at least twelve kinds of nerd, a nerd messiah to come along every four years, acquire the Secret Service code name Poindexter, install a Revenge of the Nerds screen saver on the Oval Office computer, and one by one decrypt our woes.� -Sarah Vowell

Alright, enough with the silly fantasizing. Reality is bearing down on me. You'll get another entry out of me tomorrow, if you're lucky. I'll have my last middle school classes tomorrow, as I have cunningly arranged to be absent from the middle school all next week.

you'll listen to reason when you're face down in the dirt,

greyarea

P.S. An otaku certification exam?

Diaryland