Just Afraid

I ask students to characterize themselves by completing the sentence, "I'm the type of person who. . ."

Sometimes students finish the sentence and then offer the story behind how they developed that particular personality trait.

Once a student read her sentence about how mean, abrasive, and dominant she was. She was fully aware of how she came off as a bully and someone you simply didn't want to cross. She paused and then explained, "It's because I'm shy. I'm just scared and don't know what to do."

She's just afraid. 

I realized then that when we look at a person's negative and abrasive personality traits, it just might be fear we're seeing.

She's just afraid. 

Once we heard this, we all softened towards her. We saw the fear, so we moved towards her and not away.

When I want to move away from someone because of negative personality traits, I'm starting to see the fear underneath and soften.

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"She's just afraid." I love remembering this when I'm dealing with a difficult person.

Was It You?

On the walk to school this morning, during the hardest uphill climb, everyone stops to notice a row of tulips.

They mysteriously appeared to line our path some time in the night.

Was it you? Was it you? We ask and accuse one other of guerrilla gardening.

Somebody bothered to do it, and for that, we are thankful. Somebody knew it would delight, mystify, and beautify.

That's living with flair.

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Was it you?

Just Start

I attempt to motivate students to write all week long. It requires high energy.

I sweat.

I sip iced coffee to sustain me as I defend the semicolon. I stretch out and cool down in between lessons on sentence variation and mood.

I push my hair out of my face, catch my breath, and make wild gestures to remind them to eliminate weak verbs.

I detest weak verbs. They waste my time, people.

Finally, after I've left it all on the field that is the classroom, I offer my last piece of inspiration:

Just start.

None of this matters unless you start. You have to start. 

Isn't that how anything ever happens? You start? You just start?

So just start.

I don't care if it's one single measly word (but not a weak verb), just write.

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I applied my motivational speech to myself as I stood before my bathroom with my cleaning bucket in hand. You just have to start, and soon, you've cleaned your bathroom. Spring is a great time to start.