… where you were when you saw the first African American get sworn in as president, and as I had a special experience of it, I thought I’d share. I was with my 3rd period Theater I class, and we turned off the lights and on the television and watched President Obama get sworn in and deliver his address.

My 3rd period has been an interesting experience for me this year because while I have grown accustomed to being a minority in my classroom,  this is the first time I have been a minority of one. As a blonde, green-eyed, small town Texas girl, my job has definitely been a humbling learning curve. In third period, I sometimes feel like I am learning a new language, frequently deal with topics that I hadn’t thought would touch a classroom, and initially found myself disliked and distrusted for things out of my control – my skin color, my relative wealth – as well as things in my control – the fact that I am their teacher. But over the year we have found a restless peace,  peaceful because we care about each other, restless because, cruel creature that I am, I don’t give free days, expect them to keep their phones packed up (and not in their hands texting), and occasionally make them memorize lines.

But Tuesday was different. The class arrived early and sat silently, occasionally muttering a word of “Amen” or tapping a desk in applause. One sophomore student chose to sit next to me and expressed his hope that Obama would raise a fist in a sign of Black Power and get drunk tonight in celebration. I told him I doubted he’d do either, but we agreed that it was a wonderful day for everybody, and sat together through the celebration, sharing whispered comments which had more to do with equality and hope for the nation and less to do with hand gesture and alcohol. (I think he may have just been trying to get a rise out of me with his first comments. I hope.) I watched our new president get sword in, and watched the rapt faces in my room as they commented on how old Aretha Franklin had gotten and wondered what the string quartet was doing there (although most seemed to agree that it was all good music), and it was amazing to witness the pride everyone had as they finally saw a president who looked more like them take the podium for his inaugural address.

I am honored and pleased to have shared a moment of history with a group of young people who will now be mentioned throughout my life as who I was with when the first black leader of any western nation got sworn into office.

“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” – James F. Bymes

“The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother’s heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too. …”

“… If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?” – Gene Weingarten

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Old article, but somebody reminded me of it today. I hadn’t seen the videos before. Check it out on a day you need a reminder that life is less about getting somewhere and more about how you get there.

I, too, am rooting for Britney. Why? I don’t know. But I’ve had a soft spot in my heart since someone left a copy of “Hit me baby one more time…” on the dresser in my college dorm room. A secret? I even went to see Crossroads with my sister. Yup. I’m on Team Britney.

I spent the first day of 2009 on Kaua’i Island in Hawai’i. A sign of a good year ahead? Or all my good karma rolled into one day? I’m going with the former. I can’t put into words how astounding the Garden Island is, and so I’m not going to try. Hope you enjoy some photos of it instead.