Challenging

A challenge was thrown down yesterday. In some ways it took me by surprise and left me feeling like I'd been punched. As a parent, hearing about the loss of a daughter, a friend, a niece, and a unique soul hit me in a way that I have never experienced before. I just kept thinking, "What if it was my daughter?" The thoughts left me reeling as I walked out of the auditorium talking with our band director about the ways that people deal with loss. I can only hope that I react the way that Rachel's family did. That was the challenge: Make a difference with the life you have.

I am reflecting today about how that message has influenced my life, before I ever heard the challenge. Last year my students saved lives in Africa. This year, my students have been arranging a safe driving campaign with the same goal, organizing a musical aid event to benefit the Japanese, and planning to make wishes come true in partnership with the Make-A-Wish foundation. I am part of that process and it makes me contemplative on a day like today. Listening to my students arrange for these events, I can't help but feel amazed that we are able to change the world when we decide to. I am actually awed that when we have a cause to rally around, that we tend to. My goal in life is to make a difference and to "start a chain reaction" in those around me. I want to pay it forward and help to save the world.

A few weeks ago we had "SuperHero" day at school. I did not dress up like Spider-man on that day...partly because I feel like a superhero every day. I don't save the world every day, but I try to save a piece of the world every day. I wonder what would happen if we all tried to save the world every day, even on the days that we felt beat down and overworked, maybe even especially on those days. When looking at my students, I think that they would be inclined to do so if we gave them the chance.

I accepted the challenge, internalized it, and it is a part of who I strive to be. In my classes this year, I have had my students choose their own hero projects. I haven't really told them that I have my own. Teaching them how to be heroic is my hero project. The funny thing is, I don't think I am very heroic myself...so perhaps I am not the best person to teach this quality to the students. At the end of the day though, I don't know if anyone else will step up to do it and the consequences of no one trying to take on that responsibility outweigh the benefits of waiting for a more qualified candidate...so I try to save the world one piece at a time by guiding my students towards doing so and hope that when all the cards are dealt I've made a difference and started a chain reaction that I will most likely never get to see.