In Praise of 2 Wonderful Colleagues

     I just read my last post of 2 years ago,  and wow the tone was sad and dark, but also I still remember that day when an argument cost 2 young boys their entire wages of the day. Today, I have a much different take on our world after spending a week with 34 great people.

         “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”  Muhammad Ali

          It is always interesting when your students become adults, the funny part is that they always struggle with calling me John.  They will say it,  but then often resort to the giggles of the 14 year old student that I first met in E14 so many years ago.  The trip to Uganda this time is going to be amazing, mostly because I get to share it with two amazing young women,  Melissa and Hayley.  My friend Andy just three days ago cautioned our group about the overuse of the word amazing today.  So I think about it,  and without reservation will use it with complete conviction--these two are amazing.

         A junior in high school on our trip to Biloxi said this, "Hayley Kuehner is everywhere, I truly do not understand how she can be in so many places all the time.  And she knows everyone, and is nice to everyone."  Too bad this rookie has not seen Hayley in Joplin or Moore, Oklahoma or the Bronx where she leads with a confident stride of a giant.  I know where she gets her kindness from, but she definitely adds to the lessons from her parents with her own"Beanie" brand.  She is everywhere, and I cannot wait for my Acholi friends to meet her.

        I never will forget Caitlyn W saying, "Everyone at Rockhurst is ding great, and there's Hop." We both laughed because judging Melissa on a scale of regular people is kind of not correct, she is definitely far right tail on the standard Normal scale.  With all of her talents in mathematics and science, she chose to go back to Uganda and Ocer Campion to teach Ugandanshow to write better paragraphs, because that is where the need is and was.  Somehow on our way to Biloxi between mm96 in Missouri and Canton, MS Melissa had fought the Internet and got Hayley on our exact flights.  I am quite sure only a one in a million could have done this.  Hayley and Melissa know each other, but not all that well, but Melissa of course dropped what she was doing and put her whole focus into this task.  In planning this trip, the two of us have sat down for several long conversations and I am now even more impressed with a student I call "the smartest kid I ever taught" (with possible apologies to Maggie C. Who I just saw shine again in Biloxi).  Melissa's courage and resilience are inspiring and her stories will cause me to be a better teacher.

      Wrote this in a lobby as I am waiting to get a Meningococal shot that costs $290.  Ouch! I think I will cry when I get this one.