I have always loved to teach. I have always loved school. If I could I would be enrolled in some sort of class full time. Something about a college campus makes me light up. The decorum is not necessarily fancy. Buildings of classrooms with desks. Some colleges are more elaborate than others but they seemed to be built to keep your eye on the ball.
A library is like church for me. The hushed tones of pages turning is quickly disappearing with the age of computers. But in a library there are still physical books and magazines that have a distinctive rustle. I don’t know why but I just feel safe from the outside world. I can travel to my location anywhere through those books.
Many lifelong friends and futures are built behind the walls of those classrooms and libraries. I was fortunate enough to teach university and loved every minute of it. It enabled me to constantly explore and learn to be able to be as crisp as possible for my students. And I acquired life long friends that I have seen blossom into amazing artists.
But I have to say that life has been my strongest teacher. In my youth I didn’t always heed the lessons that were being taught to me but thank goodness somehow the knowledge was stored in the back of my brain. Miraculously, out of nowhere, it still appears and saves the day. Even now, years later, I will question something and having no idea when or where I learned it, the information will come at just the right time.
My son has been an inspiration to me in my life. Who ever knows that you are doing the right thing when you are raising your child. I only have one child so I get one chance to try to do the best I can. Here I am floundering through my own life so don’t always make the best decisions for my son but I have always held him tightly in my heart and have done the best I know how. Most certainly can’t write books about child physiology but this I know. I have raised a young man who has taught me patience, kindness and dignity. He has had some rough patches along the way as we all have in our lives but he has definitely turned out the better for it.
So when I listen to him play jazz on his guitar I know regardless of how difficult his road will be he is following his passion and his heart. It’s life, his life, and when all is said and done, the journey is the best teacher.