I have long stated I don't do much on the FB crowd, but I was sorting through my senior group page and had to take a deep breathe because I found out somebody that made a difference in my life died and I didn't know. His death was in 2011. He was my principal in High School.
I feel so angry reading comments people wrote about him. They have no idea how much 'missing him and how enthusiastic he always was' simply disgusted me in cliché shallowness.
These people that are my age now wouldn't understand my anger or outrage because they don't know me. What they do know they simply looked the other way, judged and pretty much wrote off as teenage liability.
I was emancipated from my parents in 1990. My principal took on my mother, and defended me when he could and in court wrote a letter on my behalf to the judge.
I graduated high school alone. No family. No friends. Only proud teachers and of course my principal. Even they had to keep their distance. I was a straight A student whose first job was being a bagger at Winn-Dixie, that went to school, lived in a few not good places and worked 30 hours a week at Shoney's. I still graduated and received a full scholarship, but that final year wasn't sterling. Sometimes I don't believe it happened. But it did.
I left home in my uniform from Winn Dixie, my Mom got me fired. I had to wash the same pair of underwear every night for a week and wear the same clothes to school. I still went to school to be safe and because I wanted to graduate. I felt like everyone thought it was me. I was the problem.
Not my principal. I still have his letter. I still have all my teacher's letters. They didn't save me, I saved myself, but without them, no judge would have given me my freedom having no home, but I got it.
Mr. Terrel cared about me and whenever he could he always made those snot nosed kids stop hurting me with words. I never told anyone at school about my home life. So they just pushed and pushed.
These people probably think that was a phase for them and now they are grown up. The past is gone. That's true. It's behind me. I feel bad for not knowing he died until now, but I know he knew I appreciated him and what he did.
The point of this is merely a melancholy one... I'm a parent. I raise my daughter to care. To see with wide eyes. To have empathy. To love. And I don't use the word Bully except to describe people that use violence. It's pecking order. It's popularity. It's because they can. I teach her skills to see people coming and anticipate who and what they bring with them to school. She's only seven, but she listens.
Reading FB made cobweb memories come back. Some good most bad... and then I think of now... and kids... theirs...I have no enthusiasm for inquiring about my classmates' children. Case in point: this is what is wrong with our society.
Nobody that's anybody would say they had any part in judging me or how my life at 17 was and everyone else simply would nod in agreement.
How sad. Not for me. Children are a distillation of two people... so .. its mind boggling how detached a couple generations from now will be... and how 'blameless'.
The Title is what it means:
People are eager to Buy a cheaper version of an ideal. They can't afford the real thing because it costs too much... they might have to care.
I feel so angry reading comments people wrote about him. They have no idea how much 'missing him and how enthusiastic he always was' simply disgusted me in cliché shallowness.
These people that are my age now wouldn't understand my anger or outrage because they don't know me. What they do know they simply looked the other way, judged and pretty much wrote off as teenage liability.
I was emancipated from my parents in 1990. My principal took on my mother, and defended me when he could and in court wrote a letter on my behalf to the judge.
I graduated high school alone. No family. No friends. Only proud teachers and of course my principal. Even they had to keep their distance. I was a straight A student whose first job was being a bagger at Winn-Dixie, that went to school, lived in a few not good places and worked 30 hours a week at Shoney's. I still graduated and received a full scholarship, but that final year wasn't sterling. Sometimes I don't believe it happened. But it did.
I left home in my uniform from Winn Dixie, my Mom got me fired. I had to wash the same pair of underwear every night for a week and wear the same clothes to school. I still went to school to be safe and because I wanted to graduate. I felt like everyone thought it was me. I was the problem.
Not my principal. I still have his letter. I still have all my teacher's letters. They didn't save me, I saved myself, but without them, no judge would have given me my freedom having no home, but I got it.
Mr. Terrel cared about me and whenever he could he always made those snot nosed kids stop hurting me with words. I never told anyone at school about my home life. So they just pushed and pushed.
These people probably think that was a phase for them and now they are grown up. The past is gone. That's true. It's behind me. I feel bad for not knowing he died until now, but I know he knew I appreciated him and what he did.
The point of this is merely a melancholy one... I'm a parent. I raise my daughter to care. To see with wide eyes. To have empathy. To love. And I don't use the word Bully except to describe people that use violence. It's pecking order. It's popularity. It's because they can. I teach her skills to see people coming and anticipate who and what they bring with them to school. She's only seven, but she listens.
Reading FB made cobweb memories come back. Some good most bad... and then I think of now... and kids... theirs...I have no enthusiasm for inquiring about my classmates' children. Case in point: this is what is wrong with our society.
Nobody that's anybody would say they had any part in judging me or how my life at 17 was and everyone else simply would nod in agreement.
How sad. Not for me. Children are a distillation of two people... so .. its mind boggling how detached a couple generations from now will be... and how 'blameless'.
The Title is what it means:
People are eager to Buy a cheaper version of an ideal. They can't afford the real thing because it costs too much... they might have to care.
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