They say that the longer I teach the more cynical I will become. And the elusive "they" may be right.
I often feel the dark tentacles of cynicism wrap themselves, closer every day. I know they creep up like shadows each time a student says a disrespectful read, hateful, spiteful, malicious thing to me, or worse, to a fellow student, an equal. Each time enemy's are made inside these walls that are most sacredly "safe". Every time I walk these halls and hear ignorance, see blindness, tolerate intolerance from this future generation. Yes. I will become cynical. Or maybe not so much cynical as just, afraid. Anne Frank said there was good in everyone. I once believed that was true. Then I became a teacher. Maybe not.
But then there is you. And you, each of you are something different altogether.
You are the future I like to dream about. You who endure hardships others find unbearable and you still show up every day looking like you jumped right off the pages of a Judy Blume novel and that, with the optimism of a toddler.
You are the future I like to dream about. When you come to me in humility, considering others better than yourself asking why you were chosen over anyone else. You who were chosen by the others.
You are the future I like to dream about. You, the one that still has the tenderness of heart to see injustice and brokenness in the world and the passion and desire to fight and protest and make this world right. That is a future my children need.
You are the future I like to dream about when in your terror you stand up and do what you never thought you could, because you have a voice to be heard, a story to be told, and a humor to laugh at. You are brave and your future, the one with you in it, makes me brave too.
You are the future I like to dream about. You with your belief that every problem can be attacked and conquered with a poem, and that every human is perfectly capable of writing one.
You with your attitude that every person and behavior can be tolerated except, of course, intolerance.
You who crush stereotypes with questions, prejudices with patience, illiteracy with fascination.
You who step outside what you're comfortable with to become uncomfortable to become better. You who are willing to try new things, new genres, new styles instead of saying it's my way or the highway. You grow, you change, you explore, and our future needs that.
You who surprise me with random acts of intelligence.
And hilarity.
And calm.
You are the future I like to dream about because, you may think you're just kids, but you're just so much more to me.
You are all so weird, and the world needs more weird. Not because we are too conforming or compliant or compromising. Not because government is too big or our art is too small, or the middle class is just too poor. The world needs weird because that is where you come from. You the creatives. The artists, the dreamers, the poets. You who can step outside of the box, no, run from the box and solve the worlds problems with a poem and a prayer. You are the ones to bring life to this world. To save us. And my kids need that future.
You are the future I like to dream about because when I look at you, I don't see kids. I see teachers and lawyers and parents and activists and journalists and politicians and world shapers, and the people that I hope will one day run my nursing home.
You are the dreamers, the poets, the problem solvers, the fighters, the laughers. You are the lights that I like to dream about. When I dream of the future
